Latvia’s online gambling operators say the government’s decision to ban online gambling as part of its pandemic response could result in lawsuits seeking significant financial compensation.

This week, Jānis Trēgers, head of the Latvian Association of Internet Gambling (LIAB), issued a statement slamming the government’s decision to include online gambling among the activities temporarily halted to minimize further spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

Trēgers claimed the government’s decision was made contrary to any “economic logic.” Latvian-licensed online operators had already reported their average number of active gamblers falling by 26% following the government declaring a state of emergency on March 14 and Trēgers said “reducing the industry’s revenue to zero” would spell the death of the domestic online market.

Trēgers slammed Latvia’s parliamentarians for having “swiped a bold stripe over everything that had been done in Latvia to combat illegal gambling sites.” Said measures include prohibiting local financial institutions from processing payments on behalf of international gambling sites not holding a Latvian license and compelling internet service providers to block these sites’ domains.