More than half of the online casinos operating under Estonian licences did not pay gambling tax in January and February this year due to a legislative error, resulting in significantly lower-than-expected revenue for the state.
Out of 41 licensed casinos in Estonia, 17 voluntarily transferred an amount equal to the tax rate to the state.
Nine operators donated funds to the Cultural Endowment and eight transferred money to the Ministry of Finance, totalling more than €1.92m ($2.24m), according to Siiri Suutre, Communications Adviser at the Ministry of Finance.
The loophole stemmed from a clerical error in amendments to the Gambling Tax Law, which mistakenly exempted online casinos from tax obligations at the start of the year. Lawmakers later corrected the issue through an amendment that took effect in early March.
Suutre said that based on reported gambling income for January and February, the estimated tax liability for online gambling would have been about €3.5m.
The amendments to the Gambling Tax Law, proposed by Eesti 200, were approved by the Riigikogu in December 2025. The changes will gradually reduce the 6% tax rate by 0.5 percentage points each year until it reaches 4%.
Due to confusion surrounding the tax change, two criminal complaints were filed with the Prosecutor’s Office but were rejected. Mart Helme, deputy chairman of the Conservative People’s Party of Estonia, requested an investigation into possible political corruption, influence peddling, and fraud.
Helme argued that the situation may not have been a simple drafting mistake and suggested that lawmakers could have been misled ahead of the final parliamentary vote.
The Estonian Parliament adopted the 2026 state budget on 10 December 2025, with gambling tax revenues earmarked to support sports and cultural funding programmes
