Allikmaa urges Estonia to restore online gambling tax to 7%

Margus Allikmaa, head of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, says hopes that lowering the remote gambling tax would generate money for a large hall were based on “fiction”. He told ERR’s ETV programme Esimene stuudio that the rate should eventually return to 7%.

Allikmaa said the tax cut had been presented as a way to raise money to build the hall, but warnings had already been voiced that the expected revenue might not materialise. He said it was difficult to understand why information from casino operators had been trusted more than information from the Ministry of Finance.

He urged lawmakers to halt the planned reductions and keep the rate at its current 5.5% next year, rather than cut it by another 0.5 percentage points. Allikmaa said the rate could then be raised in stages, over six-month or annual intervals, to the level set out in the 2023 state budget strategy for 2024 to 2027. He said the current rate could be maintained without the usual six-month notice period because that would not change the tax environment.

According to figures from the Estonian Gaming Association cited by Allikmaa, taxable gambling turnover was 450 million euros in 2025. He defined this as players’ stakes minus winnings and said each percentage point of tax was therefore worth 4.5 million euros. The Cultural Endowment receives 47.8% of the tax revenue, he said.

Allikmaa called on Eesti 200 and Tanel Tein, who led the effort to reduce the tax, to acknowledge that the policy had not worked as hoped and correct it.