Lithuania moves towards progressive gambling tax

• Coalition working group agrees in principle on progressive gambling taxation.
• Tomas Tomilinas estimates about €36m in additional revenue.
• Rates and figures still to be written into the proposal.

Lithuania’s coalition working group agreed in principle on 5 November to introduce progressive gambling taxation, according to Tomas Tomilinas, chair of the Seimas Committee on Social Affairs and Labour.

He estimated about €36m in additional revenue and said rates and figures still needed to be written into the proposal.

Agreed, but unpriced

The working group brings together the Social Democrats, the Farmers and Greens, and the Democrats “For Lithuania”. Tomas Tomilinas, a Democrat MP, told reporters after the 5 November meeting that the parties had finally settled on a progressive levy aimed specifically at gambling, BNS reported.

He described the model as clear and said the Ministry of Finance was finishing its opinion on legislation he had submitted with colleagues. His €36m estimate came without a published calculation or an official ministry forecast.

Gambling is one item on a longer list. Tomilinas said his party brought 13 or 14 revenue proposals to the talks, which feed into 2027 budget planning.

The group dealt only with revenue on 5 November and was due to move to spending the following week. Further ministry proposals were expected on 10 November.

An earlier blueprint

An earlier proposal from Tomilinas, registered in May 2025, envisaged a progressive structure in place of the current flat 22% rate. The 22% applies to gross gaming revenue, meaning stakes received minus winnings paid out.

That bill set four rates of 22%, 27%, 32% and 37%, rising with the size of an operator’s tax base, according to government and Seimas documents. LRT reported thresholds of €1m, €3m and €5m, with the top rate applying above €5m.

Those reports did not say whether the thresholds apply per quarterly tax period or per year. Lithuania calculates and pays gambling tax quarterly, so the answer would change the bill’s reach considerably.

The draft covered slot machines, table games, bingo, totalisator, betting and remote gambling. Lotteries, taxed separately at 18% of the nominal value of tickets distributed, sat outside it.

The Seimas backed the bill at its presentation stage in June 2025. Tomilinas tied the extra revenue to national security, an aim the government later said it supported in principle.

Ministry pumps the brakes

Support for the aim did not extend to the bill. In a conclusion dated 6 October 2025, the government recommended that the Seimas not consider it.

It pointed to the rise from 20% to 22% on 1 January 2025 and to responsible gambling and control duties taking effect on 1 November 2025. Any further rate change, it argued, should be assessed later against operator performance once those rules were working in practice.

Industry associations representing seven of the 12 companies then organising gambling in Lithuania also lodged objections during the review.

The ministry has also opposed a separate Farmers and Greens proposal to raise the gambling tax to 30% and the lottery tax to 25%, as reported in August and September 2026. Deputy Minister Januš Kizenevič said licensed operators were already absorbing the cost of the regulatory overhaul, Yogonet reported.

Bulgaria’s Finance Ministry took a similar line in July, rejecting a 30% tax proposal in favour of a wider review.

Compliance bill mounts

The tax talks land on operators still absorbing new obligations. The minimum gambling age rose to 21 in November 2025, and remote operators had to install centralised platforms to identify players and record their activity from the same month.

Since May 2026, those platforms have had to connect to the regulator’s unified control system. A sponsorship ban takes effect on 1 January 2028, and the Finance Ministry has proposed mandatory player cards from 2029.

Thresholds decide everything

Lithuania’s gambling market generated €241.8m in gross gaming revenue in 2024, according to regulator figures cited in the bill’s explanatory note. Remote play accounted for €170.6m of that total, reinforcing the online trend seen in this year’s revenue data.

Under the 2025 draft, the steepest rates would fall on operators with the largest tax bases. How the coalition sets and measures any bands will determine how far the burden reaches beyond the market’s biggest brands.

The ministry’s pending opinion is the next marker. Its earlier objections centred on timing, and the coalition will now test whether that view holds once its own working group has backed the principle.