A long-serving adviser has been dismissed by the Riigikogu Chancellery just months after Estonia began to embrace a new era for iGaming taxation.
The country’s officials were left scrambling after their error in Estonia’s Gambling Tax Act resulted in millions lost in iGaming tax revenue.
Estonian broadcasting network Eesti Rahvusringhääling (ERR) has reported that the official, whose name the publication has not disclosed, has been dismissed after a clerical error in the act.
The act was passed in December last year, resulting in online casinos being exempt from tax in 2026. The error was noticed in January and has since been corrected.
However, the damage has already been done, as the state is set to lose approximately €4m in projected gambling tax revenue that year.
Antero Habicht, Director of Riigikogu Chancellery, told ERR: “In January, disciplinary proceedings were initiated at the Riigikogu Chancellery, as a result of which the official was dismissed from service as a disciplinary penalty for a serious breach of official duties.
“The trigger for this was an error made by the official during the processing of a draft law, but the termination of the service relationship was not caused solely by the fact of the error, but also by other circumstances related to the case that emerged during the disciplinary proceedings.”
No additional details of the disciplinary proceedings were disclosed, but Habicht noted that the contract termination was considered “to be inevitable and justified” and was not political.
However, ERR has reported that a five-page directive from the Riigikogu Chancellery revealed that the official was aware of the error on 5 January.
Still, the Chancellery’s leadership was not informed and only learned of the mistake a week later, via media coverage of an ERR story on 12 January.
Estonia’s remote gambling tax will drop from 6% to 4% by 2029, declining in 0.5% increments per year, with all funds generated going towards culture and sports.
The goal in reforming its iGaming market was to position Estonia as a hub for iGaming in the Nordics and across wider Europe, attracting companies and investment that can rival the likes of Malta, Isle of Man and Gibraltar in the sector.
