Latvia’s legislature, the Saeima, has approved at the first reading a bill to ban alimony debtors from gambling, and scheduled a second reading for 20 January.

The bill, a set of amendments to the Law on the Maintenance Guarantee Fund, would require operators to ensure that those who owe maintenance payments are not permitted to gamble either in person or online.

In order to do so, they must check accounts against the national register of maintenance debtors, with the help of the Lotteries and Gambling Inspectorate, which will create an official data display for licensees. The legislature said that it expects this process to be similar to performing a self-exclusion check.