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Olympic Casino Group Baltija (OCGB) has been fined almost €8.4m in Lithuania for not taking sufficient steps to check the source of funds used by a businessman accused of embezzling more than €40m from BaltCap.
The Lithuanian Gaming Control Authority (GCA) under the Ministry of Finance found measures Olympic Casino took to determine whether Šarūnas Stepukonis funds were derived from criminal activity to be “of poor quality and insufficient”.
“The monitoring of the client’s transactions was formal. The company did not take steps to analyse the transactions or report them to the FIU, despite obvious signs that should have raised suspicion. Instead, efforts were directed in the opposite direction: encouraging Šarūnas Stepukonis to gamble even more,” the GCA told Vixio GamblingCompliance.
The GCA added “the company stated that it disagrees with the decision and will appeal it to the court”.
Stepukonis incurred losses of €6.4m on the operator's website from December 2016 to the end of June 2021, according to a GCA press release on March 6.
During his time gambling on the website, “obvious signs” that his transactions were suspicious never led to the appropriate authorities being contacted.
Additionally, when he displayed potentially problematic gambling behaviour he was encouraged to gamble even more, according to Virginijus Daukšys, director of the GCA.
“An individual incentive package was prepared for him. A total of €1.3m was allocated for this. This bonus could only be spent on gambling. Other incentives were also allocated,” Daukšys said.
In 2021, Lithuania banned these types of incentives. Stepukonis’ gambling activity was then moved to Estonia.
The GCA added that a new law will “take effect in November 2025, requiring gambling operators to actively report instances of irresponsible gambling”.
Olympic has not responded to a request for comment from Vixio.
Past Enforcement Action
In recent years, Olympic Casino has faced numerous enforcement actions in Lithuania.
Most recently, on January 23, 2025, the GCA announced its decision to draw up an administrative offence report for advertising breaches committed by Olympic Casino.
On November 21, 2022, the regulator issued a €25,000 fine to the operator for violating the ban on encouraging gambling in Lithuania.
On March 2, 2022, both Gambling Strategy Group (Lošimų strateginė grupė) and Olympic Casino were fined €25,000 each for unlawful promotion of poker.
