The Riga City Council Committee on Security, Order and the Prevention of Corruption approved draft binding regulations today to restrict the organisation of gambling in the administrative territory of the Riga municipality.
The committee was told that there are currently 76 gambling venues in Riga. If the binding regulations are approved, each venue will have to assessed for compliance with the new rules, and a separate decision will be taken with respect to each gambling venue in turn.
Members also learned that a survey of citizens was conducted in advance of preparation of the binding regulations, finding that around one-half want all gambling venues in the Latvian capital city to be closed, and a large majority supporting further restrictions on their operations.
As has been reported, the new regulations would ban gambling near educational institutions, railway stations, bus deports, airports and other locations.
Unlike previous restrictions, which limited gambling to four- and five-star hotels, the new rules set out places and areas in Riga where gambling will be banned outright.
The rules are based on recommendations from the Latvian Constitutional court, and they are the result of public discussions that were held in February of this year.
The new rules stipulate that gambling will not be allowed on municipal property, at neighbourhood centres, on the grounds of educational establishments and within 300 metres of them, at railway stations, bus depots, passenger ports, and within 500 metres from them. The same will be true of 300 metres away from public transportation stops.
Gambling will not be allowed in neighbourhoods of detached low-rise and high-rise residential buildings, as defined in Riga’s Spatial Plan, nor will it be permitted within 300 metres of the boundaries of these functional zones, as well as at cultural monuments and their territories and protection zones, once again as defined for protection in the Spatial Plan.
Source: BNS
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