Bulgarian Betting Continues to Grow Despite Lower Tax Contributions

The Association of Gaming Industry in Bulgaria (AGIB) has published its financial report for the first nine months of 2024, highlighting a decline in gambling taxes in spite of the industry’s rapid growth. The discrepancy was caused by taxation changes that the Bulgarian Parliament passed last year.

Bulgarian Betting Flourishes Thanks to the New Regulations

According to the AGIB’s report, the overall number of betting kiosks continues to increase, while online betting flourishes. As of the time of this writing, online gambling licenses have been issued to 24 companies.

Despite the rapid growth, the industry paid less in taxes in the first nine months of 2024, compared to the same period last year. This was attributed to changes to Bulgaria’s gambling law that were voted on in Parliament at the end of 2023.

The amendments introduced certain gambling taxes and fees. At the same time, the Parliament approved lower taxes for the national lottery and sports betting, which has greatly benefitted local sportsbooks and betting kiosks.

For context, the Parliament unanimously agreed to lower the effective tax for lottery, bingo and retail betting. As a result, instead of the previous 15% tax on betting handle, the National Revenue Agency (NRA) now collects a one-time tax of BGN 300K ($162,019), as well as a 20% tax on the difference between the total handle and the winnings that have been paid out.

As a result, the lottery and sports betting sectors paid only BGN 37 million ($20 million) in taxes for the first nine months of the year, marking an 11% year-on-year decline.

While the lottery and betting taxes were lowered, the iGaming license fee was raised from BGN 100K ($54,006) to BGN 400K ($216,025). The government’s proceeds from this sector, however, also experienced a decline, decreasing by 6.6% for the year-to-date period.

The Number of Gambling Halls Decreased

As mentioned, the government approved a tax increase of 60% for the retail casino sector. As a result, casinos and gaming halls paid 41% more than it did in the prior-year period.

At the same time, the total number of gaming halls declined because of new regulations that prohibited such venues in underpopulated areas or near schools. As a result, as of September 30, the total number of gambling venues had decreased slightly to 1098 halls. The AGIB added that the overall number of gambling machines in the country has been reduced by 1200.

The total number of casinos in Bulgaria remains 20.

Despite the slight decline in lottery and betting taxes, the industry’s overall contribution to the budget has increased dramatically. In the first nine months of 2024, the contributions exceeded the industry’s entire contributions for 2023. It should be noted, however, that BGN 80 million ($43.2 million) of the total BGN 380 million ($205.2 million) came from one-time fees.

In any case, the AGIB forecasts total gaming contributions of BGN 480 million ($259.2 million) for 2024.