On 23 June 2021, GameArt announced the certification of fifteen HTML5 slots for the Lithuanian market, including Rosh Immortality Cube Megaways™, Nefertiti's Nile and Piggy Holmes.
The press release quotes Deane Hendricks, then the studio's Chief Operations Officer, but names no test lab, no regulator and not a single Lithuanian operator.
Deane Hendricks's statement follows Slotmill's of 9 March 2021 almost word for word, and PopOK Gaming reused the same wording in December 2023.
The Lošimų priežiūros tarnyba (LPT), Lithuania's gambling regulator, only accepts certificates from accredited bodies. On 26 February 2026, its list showed nineteen names, one of them struck off.
Set by order DI-678 of 16 November 2015, Lithuania's technical requirements oblige category A machines to keep a prize fund between 90% and 100% of stakes.
A certified slot only becomes playable once a licensed operator adds it to its rules, and every annex to those rules, game lists included, is approved by order of the LPT's director.
Six days before the Lithuanian announcement, GameArt had already brought four of these fifteen titles to Belgium, at betFIRST, as dice slots.
In Lithuania, remote gambling generated €202.4 million in gross gaming revenue in 2025, then €119.9 million in the first half of 2026, around 78% of the market.
Since 2025, you must be 21 to bet or play casino games in Lithuania. Advertising is tightly restricted and loses its last exemptions on 1 January 2028, while a mandatory player card is planned for 2029, pending a vote in the Seimas.
Since 6 February 2023, GameArt has held a B2B licence from the Malta Gaming Authority, a milestone the studio counts among its 2023 highlights in the review it published in January 2024.
Outside Lithuania, the rules change with each country: only play GameArt slots at a casino licensed where you live.
Fifteen slots, one Baltic country and a sentence made for the trade press: GameArt's announcement of 23 June 2021 ran to just a few lines. The studio presented its certification for Lithuania as one more step on the road to regulated markets. Five years on, both sides have moved. On one side stands a certified slot provider that has piled up approvals. On the other, a Lithuanian regulator has tightened almost every one of its rules. A certification works like a stamp in a passport: valuable, yet quite unable to open a border on its own.
So I'll tackle it in the right order: dates first, then what the word “certification” really covers in Vilnius, and finally the market these fifteen titles opened up. From the studio's offices in Malta and Slovenia to a Lithuanian player's screen, the road has more stops than a press release of a few paragraphs would suggest.
What did GameArt's press release of 23 June 2021 say?
On 23 June 2021, GameArt announced that fifteen of its HTML5 slots now met the requirements of the Lithuanian jurisdiction. The release, titled “GameArt Secures Certification for Lithuania”, is still online on the studio's website.
Fifteen HTML5 titles and eight markets already open
The list blends the settings and eras of the in-house catalogue. It features Diego: El Pibe de Oro, Ali Baba's Riches, Nefertiti's Nile, Mariachi Fiesta, Hawaiian Christmas, African Sunset 2, Rosh Immortality Cube Megaways™, Piggy Holmes, Hawaiian Fruits, Apocalypse Quest, Dawn of Olympus, Chili Quest, Money Farm 2, Tiger Heart and Wolf Hunt. The release places this step in a series, with eleven games freshly approved for Italy and ten for Bulgaria. For Bulgaria, GameArt's announcement of 10 June 2021 had named the lab: GLI. All eleven Italian titles also appear in the Lithuanian batch, where only the last four on the list, from Chili Quest to Wolf Hunt, are unique to Lithuania.
Deane Hendricks, who was running operations at the time, added Lithuania to eight markets already covered by the studio's certifications: Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Croatia, Spain, Romania, Colombia and the Philippines. There are no commercial figures and no local partner. The announcement stops at the border.
The Belgium in that list deserves a closer look. Six days earlier, on 17 June 2021, GameArt had announced five titles at betFIRST. Four of them also appear among the fifteen certified for Lithuania: Piggy Holmes, African Sunset 2, Mariachi Fiesta and Nefertiti's Nile. Same game, two outfits. Classic reels on the Lithuanian side, dice versions on the Belgian side, the format that suits the country's B+ licences.
You can still check this detail today. On 28 October 2026, GameArt's online game library still showed these “Dice” versions next to the originals, from Money Farm 2 to Wolf Hunt.
A quote that had been used before
Deane Hendricks's statement runs to two sentences. The first will sound familiar to anyone who read the trade press in spring 2021: “It is extremely encouraging to gain game certification also for Lithuania.” He then tied quality to compliance with local regulations.
Going through the announcements of the time, I came across the same pattern at Slotmill. On 9 March 2021, its founder Johan Öhman also said he was very encouraged by a Lithuanian certification. He then linked quality and local rules in turn, in exactly the same order.
Two and a half years after GameArt's announcement, the formula came back. On 4 December 2023, PopOK Gaming ran an advertising feature on iGaming Business for eighteen slots certified in Lithuania. The statement credited to Tsovinar Elchyan, the studio's product manager, repeats GameArt's wording almost comma for comma.
A sentence that travels from one studio to the next brings to mind the cards that go back into the shoe after every deal. Nothing shows who passed it to whom, or whether a shared agency held the pen. I draw a reader's lesson from it. A press release quote tells you about a company's tone, almost never about its games. To hear a GameArt spokesperson step outside the template, the interview given to EuroGambling by Vid Daolio in November 2023 is a better place to look, because it answers real questions.
How does a slot get the green light in Lithuania?
In Lithuania, the Lošimų priežiūros tarnyba (LPT), which reports to the Ministry of Finance, puts every online slot through three successive locks. The single word “certification” in the press release bundles all three together.
First lock: a certificate from an accredited lab
Article 16 of Lithuania's gambling law requires every gaming device, online or land-based, to carry a certificate issued by an accredited body. This document confirms that the device complies with the law and with the LPT's requirements. The authority restated the rule in a consultation of 29 September 2021. It explained that operators attach these certificates to their applications, and that its division in charge of approving device types reviews them.
Not every lab can sign these documents. Updated on 26 February 2026, the LPT's list of accredited bodies shows nineteen names, one of them struck off in 2024. Among others, it includes four GLI entities, two from BMM Testlabs, NMi Certin, iTech Labs, eCOGRA, Gaming Associates Europe, Malta's Quinel M. Limited and two Lithuanian bodies. GameArt's press release does not say which one tested its fifteen titles. The same week, Evoplay was more forthcoming, crediting GLI with the certification of forty games for the same country.
Second lock: the LPT's technical requirements
Order No. DI-678, signed by the LPT's director on 16 November 2015, sets out what the lab must check. Published in English by the authority, the requirements for remote gambling devices turn the lab into the inspector who checks the roulette wheel before the gaming room opens: nothing can be decided in advance.
Controlled randomness and rules always in view
The random number generator must deliver statistically independent and uniformly distributed results, with a confidence level of at least 99%, and keep running when it is not producing a result. On screen, the rules must stay accessible at all times and the device's clock must remain visible. The player can always see the game's name, their balance, their stake, their winnings and the version of the client software. The device must also be able to replay at least a player's last game exactly as it happened.
Category A or category B: two payout regimes
Lithuanian law distinguishes two families of machines, and both exist online. In category A, with no cap on winnings, the prize fund must represent 90% to 100% of stakes. In category B, the stake is capped at €0.50 and the win at 200 times the stake, with a lower range of 80% to 100%. Each game must display this theoretical percentage in its rules. It is the first figure to look for in a game's information sheet, the Lithuanian equivalent of the RTP (return to player).
Third lock: the operator's rules
A certified game is still not in front of the player. It must first appear in a licensed operator's rules for organising remote gambling, a document the LPT approves by order of its director, annex by annex.
The LPT publishes these annexes, and a single one is enough to show what this last step looks like. Approved by order DIE-518 of 27 November 2025, Annex 2.39 to Baltic Bet's rules lists thirty Slotmill slots one by one. Each appears under a Lithuanian name followed by its original title, with its minimum and maximum stakes and its maximum win. “Outlaws” becomes “Nusikaltėliai”, playable from €0.20 to €50 with a win capped at €250,000.
This is where certification becomes a matter of selection, because nothing forces a licensed online casino to take on a certified title. It is the same market-by-market certification I described when looking at aggregators. Since 1 November 2025, remote gambling platforms must also meet new technical requirements, with registration and marking, set by order DIE-202 of 22 May 2025.
Where does Lithuania fit in GameArt's journey?
With fifteen slots in one go, the Lithuanian batch of June 2021 is larger than any of the numbered batches listed below, from Italy to Maltese operators. All the same, the studio kept getting its titles approved country by country.
Spain opens the series. In March 2019, as CasinoBeats reported, GameArt obtained a certification from the DGOJ, Spain's regulator, based on an evaluation by Gaming Laboratories International (GLI). The studio would name the same lab again two years later for Bulgaria. The rest of its Spanish certifications came in small steps, up to the six titles added in June 2023.
Five countries in six weeks: between 4 June and 15 July 2021, the studio was clearly in a hurry to settle into regulated markets. After Italy, Bulgaria, Belgium on 17 June and Lithuania on 23 June, GameArt signed a deal on 15 July with a Catalan operator for its online casino, CasinoBarcelona.es.
Announcement date
Market or framework
Batch announced
Total quoted by GameArt
Lab named
March 2019
Spain (DGOJ)
Studio certification
Not stated
GLI
4 June 2021
Italy
1 slot (Diego: El Pibe de Oro)
65 others already certified
None
10 June 2021
Bulgaria
10 slots
Not stated
GLI
16 June 2021
Italy
10 games
76
None for this batch
23 June 2021
Lithuania
15 HTML5 slots
Not stated
None
12 June 2023
Netherlands
9 slots
12, with 5 more expected within the month
None
19 June 2023
Spain
6 slots
25, with 8 more planned
None
1 August 2023
MGA-licensed operators
8 slots
27
None
The record points to a habit rather than a rule. GameArt puts numbers on its batches but only names the lab now and then: GLI for Spain and Bulgaria, Quinel for five Italian titles in March 2022. Even the progress update published with the expanded partnership of August 2023, which claims more than eighty games certified for the MGA and regulated markets in thirteen countries, cites no lab. In the meantime, the studio had obtained its B2B licence from the Malta Gaming Authority on 6 February 2023. The licence lets a company supply operators, the certification lets a game into a market, and one does not replace the other.
How big is Lithuania's online gambling market in 2026?
Remote gambling brought in €202.4 million in gross gaming revenue in Lithuania in 2025, 19% more than in 2024, out of a total market of €274.1 million. These figures come from the LPT's annual review released in March 2026, which notes that online gambling overtook land-based venues as early as 2020.
The curve climbed again in the first half of 2026: €153.6 million in gross gaming revenue (+16.8%), including €119.9 million from remote gambling, around 78% of the market. Category A, where operators file video slots in their rule annexes, produced €85.7 million online, a third more than a year earlier. Category B shrank by 63.3% to €424,844. Ten companies offered remote gambling over the period, according to the half-year figures published in mid-August 2026 by the regulator and reported by European Gaming.
The Lithuanian table has left the gaming room for the screen, and the state takes its cut. Operators pay 22% of their gross gaming revenue in tax. In September 2026, the Ministry of Finance refused to send the Seimas a proposal that would have raised this rate to 30%.
This market has its shadow. In 2025, the LPT added 208 domains to its list of illegal operators, which held 2,017 by the end of the year, and sent 47 warnings to foreign entities. Its self-exclusion register received 18,710 requests, about 14% more than in 2024. For a studio, the arithmetic is simple. A country where online gambling accounts for almost four euros in five easily justifies fifteen lab files. For a Lithuanian player, the message lies elsewhere. A legal offer exists, and the LPT's blacklist traces the outline of everything that falls outside it.
What has changed for Lithuanian players since 2021?
Since the green light of 2021, Lithuania has tightened its rules step by step, and autumn 2024 brought most of the changes. In November, the Seimas passed two sets of amendments. One of them covered advertising: the president signed it on 22 November 2024 and it has applied since 1 July 2025. Like a pit boss who lowers the table limits as the evening goes on, lawmakers changed nothing in one go.
Rules already in force
Age: the threshold rose from 18 to 21 in 2025 for all gambling, in venues and online. Only national lottery draws are exempt.
Advertising: as public broadcaster LRT sums it up, operators may now only display their name and brand at their head office, in their venues and on their own website. On television, radio and the internet, only betting spots of fifteen seconds or less are still allowed, and that exemption ends on 1 January 2028.
Sponsorship: it remains possible in sport and culture until 2028, but a gambling company's name can no longer form part of a club's or a league's name.
Changes still awaiting a vote in the Seimas
In mid-June 2026, the Lithuanian government approved a draft law on a mandatory player card, online and in venues alike, together with an end to cash in gambling venues. According to the Ministry of Finance, which is steering the bill, the card would record deposits and winnings centrally, whatever the operator. The proposed timetable runs from 1 May 2027, for changes to supervision and the easing of requirements deemed excessive, to 1 January 2029, for the card and the end of cash. In mid-September 2026, the bill was still awaiting its final vote in the Seimas.
The card does not touch a game's certificate. It touches the player's way in. That is the other half of the equation, and probably the one with the heaviest consequences for operators.
How should you read a certification announcement?
Five years after GameArt's Lithuanian press release, here are the questions I ask of any certification announcement, whatever the studio.
Which market? A named country is worth more than a vague line about “regulated markets”.
Which lab? A name can be checked against the regulator's list. Its absence proves nothing, but it takes a check away from the reader.
Which titles? A list of names can be cross-checked. A round number, much less so.
Which operator? Without a licensed operator to add the game to its rules, no player can reach it.
Which date? A reposted or misdated announcement blurs the timeline, and the mistake spreads fast from one site to the next.
Applied to the announcement of 23 June 2021, the grid gives a mixed verdict: one country and fifteen titles named, but no lab and no operator. I invite you to put the studio's other regulatory milestones through the same test, from Malta to ISO standards.
FAQs:
When did GameArt get its certification for Lithuania?
GameArt announced it on 23 June 2021 on its website. The announcement covers fifteen HTML5 slots found compliant with Lithuanian regulations.
Which GameArt slots are certified in Lithuania?
The press release lists fifteen, including Money Farm 2, Dawn of Olympus, Wolf Hunt, Tiger Heart, Chili Quest and Hawaiian Christmas. It does not say which Lithuanian operators offer them.
Who regulates online gambling in Lithuania?
The Lošimų priežiūros tarnyba (LPT), which reports to the Ministry of Finance. It issues permits, approves operators' rules and keeps the list of illegal sites.
Is a certified slot available at every Lithuanian online casino?
No. Each operator chooses its games and must add them to its rules, which the LPT approves. A certified title may therefore be missing from most operators.
What RTP does Lithuania require for online slots?
In category A, 90% to 100% of stakes. Category B, limited to a €0.50 stake, allows a range of 80% to 100%.
How old do you have to be to gamble online in Lithuania?
21 for betting and casino games, online and in venues alike, since the reform passed in November 2024 and applied in 2025.
How many operators offer legal online gambling in Lithuania?
Ten companies in the first half of 2026. Against that, the LPT had blacklisted 2,017 illegal domains by the end of 2025.
Does GameArt hold a gaming licence?
Yes, a B2B licence from the Malta Gaming Authority, reference MGA/B2B/966/2022, issued on 6 February 2023. It covers the company, not each game in each market.
Can I play these slots outside Lithuania?
Only where your country allows it. The Lithuanian certificate stops at the Lithuanian border, and the EU has no sector-specific gambling legislation: each state runs its own market, through a monopoly or licensed operators. Check the casino's licence with your national regulator first.
Will Lithuania introduce a player card?
That is the plan the government approved in June 2026, with entry into force on 1 January 2029 for online and land-based gambling alike. The Seimas still has to vote on it.
