The importance of attention to detail was underpinned, as a clerical mishap could have proved costly for the government coffers of Estonia.
Politicians in the country are moving rapidly to rectify a blunder which would have meant online casinos were exempt from tax in 2026.
In December, as part of efforts to transform the country’s gambling industry, the Riigikogu passed radical tax reform that will reduce the current tax rate of 6% by 0.5% each year until it reaches 4%.
However, according to local media outlet ERR, Finance Committee member Aivar Kokk discovered an error in the wording of the law, which excluded games of chance from the Gambling Tax Act for 2026 – meaning online casinos would not have been required to pay a tax rate of 5.5%.
“Games of chance and remote gambling were left out of this year’s taxation, meaning online casino games are not being taxed in 2026,” said Kokk.
Kokk noted that the correct wording has been used for the following years of the act.
Despite this, not spotting the error could have proven extremely costly for the Estonian government, as online gaming operators paid approximately €22m in tax in 2025.
Given Estonia’s goal of attracting greater investment into its gambling industry through reducing tax rates, an even larger figure could have been missed out on this year.
Since being discovered, the Chair of the Finance Committee, Annely Akkermann, has confirmed that the error will be corrected within a month, most likely through tacking an amendment onto another bill.
“This mistake is indeed in the Gambling Tax Act, and we will fix it,” Akkerman told ERR.
“No one noticed it. I personally read through the bill. Everyone read it – lawyers at the Ministry of Finance, our committee staff, members of parliament, all the way up to the president.”
Estonia eyes iGaming transformation
The error could have marked a calamitous start to Estonia’s new era for gaming as it seeks to court greater international investment and compete with Malta and Gibraltar as an iGaming hub in Europe.
Through reducing the financial burden on the industry, Estonia hopes to recreate the economic drive witnessed in locations like Malta, where the online gambling sector accounts for roughly 30% of the island’s GDP.
Madis Timpson, Reform Party MP and one of the drafters of the bill, said: “A remote gambling paradise is indeed what we could become. The idea would be that those foreign firms which are currently operating somewhere with their place of business officially registered in, for instance, Malta, would come to Estonia. Those people who are playing somewhere, I don’t know, in France, in Spain, their profits would come to us.”
iGaming Expert Analysis: Estonia is in the midst of a major transformation when it comes to iGaming. This would have been a rocky start to a new era, but nonetheless – the country is undeniably still well-positioned to establish itself as a rival to Malta and Gibraltar in terms of being one of Europe’s major gambling hubs.
