EU is proposing a pan-European iGaming tax

Romanian MEP Victor Negrescu has been pushing for a 1-3% levy on online gambling operator turnover across the EU, earmarked for education and youth initiatives. The idea picked up support from 40+ MEPs and the S&D political bloc.

Then the European Commission published its assessment last week. The proposal was sold as generating up to €28bn over the EU's 7-year budget cycle. The Commission's estimate came in at €13.3bn, roughly €1.9bn per year from 2028 to 2034.

The bigger problem, though, is the black market angle. Illegal online gambling already represents 71% of the EU online casino market and national budgets are losing €20bn a year in uncollected taxes from unlicensed operators. Adding another levy on licensed operators widens that gap further.

Malta is widely expected to oppose it given how much of the EU's licensed iGaming activity runs through there.
Worth keeping an eye on if you're promoting EU-facing operators. Higher operator costs tend to flow downstream eventually.

Source: sbcnews.co.uk/igaming/2026/05/21/eu-gambling-tax and brightsideofnews.com/gambling/online-gambling-tax-eu-commission

If this needs universal approval can't see how iGaming hubs like Malta and Cyprus would approve it.

Surely this just pushes more gambling offshore also.

The link doesn't work for me, but I read the news somewhere else. It seems that the only way politics can think of raising money is through taxes. No way this could be approved unanimously, so for me this is part of something else.

tax tax tax tax :pissed: