Bulgaria increases tax on gambling

In Bulgaria the tax on sports betting is 10% whilst on other gambling it is 12% and that is the way it was to stay until the intervention of Prime Minister Boiko Borissov. Mr Borissov urged the countries parliament to reconsider its earlier decision to leave the rates unchanged and to increase them to a unified 15% to help with the considerable budget deficit. On November 26^th he got his way and Parliament also increased taxes on gaming machines and roulette tables by 66% and 22% respectively. Needless to say the countries gambling industry was not in favour of the increases and largest bookmaker Eurofootball said that an increased tax would not only adversely affect the industry which incidentally employs some 80000 people but would also not increase revenues given that the industry was already 40% down due to the recession but the finance ministry estimate is for an increase in the order of 65 million Leva (€33 million) which it will use for the health sector budget. The bookmaker went on to advocate better regulation of the online casino business which it claims is illegal anyway given that none of the major online gambling websites has a license to operate in Bulgaria. This it claims could bring in as much as €80 million annually. The budget for 2010 was finally approved in the country in the early hours of the morning one day last week.