Tein rejects blame for lower gambling tax revenue

Tanel Tein, a member of Estonia’s 200 parliamentary faction and the main advocate of a tax cut for online casinos, said the lower collection of gambling tax cannot be attributed to the cut in remote gambling tax and that it is premature to discuss reversing the measure, ERR reports.

A law passed by parliament in December lowered the gambling tax rate for online casinos from 6% to 4% over two years. The aim was to encourage more online casinos to register in Estonia and increase tax revenue.

Instead, gambling tax revenue has fallen short of expectations by several million euros. In the first seven months of 2026, the state collected 3.36 million euros in gambling tax, 9.7% less than during the same period last year.

Prime Minister Kristen Michal said last week that the government would debate the tax benefit for online casinos. He said cultural funding must not suffer because of the measure and that the government had already covered the missing revenue.

Michal said it was still difficult to assess whether the tax cut had attracted more online casinos to Estonia because it had been in effect for only a short time. The reasons for the decline in gambling tax revenue were also not yet clear, he said.

“If tax revenue does not increase, there is no point in continuing with further tax cuts,” Michal said. He added that gambling activity in Estonia may have declined, affecting gambling tax revenue overall, and that the government needed to determine how much of the shortfall was linked to the remote gambling tax cut.

Tein wants to continue with the tax cut

Tein said his position had not changed and that he did not support reversing the agreed strategy for lowering remote gambling tax.

“The 9.7% decline in total gambling tax revenue is not the damage caused by the reduction in remote gambling tax,” Tein said. He noted that total gambling tax revenue also includes Eesti Loto and traditional gambling, whose tax rates were not reduced by the reform. He also said a legislative error affected the first two months of 2026.

Tein said figures from the Cultural Endowment of Estonia showed that the shortfall had several sources. According to figures published by its director, Margus Allikmaa, alcohol and tobacco excise revenue was about 818,000 euros below forecast, the Eesti Loto shortfall was approximately 700,000 euros, traditional gambling was about 150,000 euros below forecast, and the shortfall specifically linked to remote gambling was about 956,000 euros.

Tein said it was therefore inaccurate to suggest that all of the Cultural Endowment’s lower revenue this year had resulted from the remote gambling tax cut. He said the differences between budget forecasts and actual collections should first be separated from the question of what caused them.