The reduction of the online gambling tax in Estonia did not lead to an increase in the number of operators
Estonia's plan to attract foreign operators in the online gambling sector by reducing the tax rate has not yet yielded the expected results. At the end of last year, the rate was decreased from 6% to 4%, but this has attracted little interest.
According to Estonia's Deputy Secretary General for Financial and Tax Policy, Evelyn Liivamägi, only two license applications have been submitted for operating in the country, and both are still under review. Another applicant withdrew their application.
The implementation of the reform was complicated by a legislative error discovered in January: due to this, online operators temporarily lacked an applicable tax obligation. During this period, companies paid voluntarily: €815,000 was collected in January, and €1.12 million in February. A deficit of €220,000 was later covered through an additional budget transfer to the Culture Fund.