Poker Declared A Sport In Lithuania

This week, the Baltic state of Lithuania has officially declared poker to be a sport, thus paving the way for the further development of poker within the EU country.
The Lithuanian Department of Physical Education and Sports made the landmark announcement on March 20th and then officiated the decision by recognising the ‘Lithuanian Sports Poker Federation’ (LSPF) as an official sports body.
Following the announcement, the newly appointed president of the LSPF Andrius Tapinas commented: “This is extremely important step in our work. We are receiving congratulations from many of our colleagues abroad and I know that we are breaking thick ice with our progress for similar international initiatives.”
Amongst those in the industry expressing their support for the move are PokerStars.net, as well as Lithuanian born poker pro and business man Antanas Guoga, aka Tony G. The ‘Lithuanian Sports Poker Federation’ has also now been accepted as a member of the International Federation of Poker (IFP).
An inaugural LSPF tournament has already been organised to take place on April 24th in the country’s capital Vilnius, and in the meantime the LSPF are expected to present their official tournament schedule to the Lithuania’s sports media next week.
Lithuania was the first Soviet republic country to declare independence back in March 1990. It is now viewed as a progressive country with a strong economy, whose population of around 3 million people enjoy a GDP per capita of $17,800, making them better off than in neighbouring Latvia, Poland, Russia and Belarus.