Lithuania, the largest of the three Northern European Baltic States, scored a significant point recently in the ongoing legal and philosophical debate as to how poker should be classified, when their government’s Department of Physical Education and Sports issued an official decree Saturday, recognizing the Lithuanian Sports Poker Federation (LSPF) as an official sports federation.

This legal classification will now allow the LSPF to organize major non-commercial poker tournaments outside of casinos and will- in all likelihood- encourage a significant new surge in poker popularity in Lithuania.  Along with growing the game locally, this new definition could also have other far reaching implications, potentially even helping other countries- including the US- whose governments are currently struggling to find a way to legally classify poker, and may potentially even serve as a blueprint that they can follow.

“This is extremely important step in our work,” stated Andrius Tapinas, president of the Lithuanian Sport Poker Federation. “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.”