Bulgarian Parliament adopts a 15 % unified tax rate on gambling

The quarterly tax on gambling machines and roulette tables will also be increased as of January 1, 2010. Currently gambling machines are taxed us$ 230 every three months while the rate for roulette tables is us$ 13,800. This will increase to us$ 383 and us$ 16,867 due every three months. The move to increase the tax on gambling has been widely criticised by Bulgarian gambling industry associations and Bulgarian largest bookmaker, Eurofootball.

The company said that the increased tax would have a negative effect on the industry, which employed about 80 000 people, and would not lead to more revenue to the Budget, given that the industry’s revenue was already down 40 %. According to a company statement, the 12 % tax rate would bring about us$ 23 million in losses for the sector in 2010.

According to Finance Ministry calculations, the 2% point increase would bring a further us$ 9,2 million to the Budget every year. Legislators should raise revenue collection from the gambling industry by concentrating on better regulation of the online gambling business, which could bring as much as us$ 122,6 million more to the Budget annually, Eurofootball said.

The bookmaker has long lobbied for government regulation of online gambling, which, Eurofootball argues, is illegal because none of the major international betting websites is licensed as a bookmaker in Bulgaria.