Bulgaria’s government has followed similar trends across Europe and made the decision to target the gambling industry in a bid to fill a €3.86bn fiscal deficit.
The country’s new budget means that from January 2026 operators will have to pay 25% tax on gross gaming revenues, up from the current tax rate of 20%.
Such a slight increase makes the case that the Bulgarian government is aware that it is treading a fine line between boosting tax intake and adversely impacting the ability of the regulated sector to grow through an overbearing financial burden.
It’s interesting to note that the 25% figure chosen by Bulgaria sits at the precipice of a new study released by the Betting and Gaming Council, which found that countries with a GGR tax of less than 25% experienced 13% growth annually in tax take from 2019 to 2024, compared to 9% when tax was over 25%.
Bulgaria may well have also been vigilant of developments across Europe.
At the beginning of 2025, the Netherlands hiked its gambling tax rate to 34.2% of GGR, with the view of increasing this further to 37.8% from January 1 2026.
Romania also revised its gambling tax plan in July, raising the tax on online gaming GGR from 21% to 27%.
However, politicians across Europe may be minded to look at the outcome of the decision taken by the Dutch market, as authorities in the Netherlands contend with the possibility of a €200m shortfall due to a decrease in engagement with the regulated industry.
The alternative option
While tax rises appear to be high on the agenda for many, Estonia has taken the radical decision to undertake a staged decrease of its remote gambling tax in a bid to increase tax intake.
The country’s remote tax will decrease from 6% to 4%, falling by 0.5% per year for the next four years.
Although this may be seen as a radical way to boost tax takings, Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna has noted that there are provisions in place to halt the planned decreases if revenue targets aren’t hit.
