The Olympic Entertainment Group has announced that it has acquired 100% of Baltic Gaming A/S, Latvia’s second largest casino operator. The transaction is one of the largest direct investments made by an Estonian company in Latvia, and Olympic will have around 15% of the Latvian gaming market. Armin Karu, Chairman of Olympic Casino said, “The primary objective of the transaction was to ensure that the company is able to develop on the Latvian market both in a stable and powerful manner. In Latvia we are determined to become the market leader in the nearest few years.”

Baltic Gaming owns 33 casinos in Latvia, including the popular Voodoo in the capital Riga. All but one of the casinos are slot machine operations but many will be upgraded during the course of next year and rebranded with the Olympic name. Olympic intends to invest a further €8 million in Latvia, adding to the €9 million it has already invested. Riga’s largest casino located at the Radisson SAS Hotel is owned by Olympic. The operations of Olympic Casinos Latvija and Baltic Gaming will be merged without cutbacks or major staff changes.

The Olympic Entertainment Group started operations in Estonia in 1993 and now operates in Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine. In 2004 turnover was €40 million from its 16 casinos in Estonia, 38 in Latvia, 7 in Lithuania and 4 in Ukraine. The company is a full member of the European Casino Association, sponsors the Estonian Olympic Committee, and its working procedures are certified to the ISO 9001 quality standard. (E-12.20.05)

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