G3-247 Report ESTONIA MARKET REPORT


Ministry of Finance is planning to make further changes next year. In addition the Gambling Tax Act will change in February 2015. This will bring a change for the slot tax rate and tournament tax rates in the main.


Due to these changes Estonia has since become one of the key gambling markets and its willingness to reform laws to provide positive financial outcome for its resi- dents indicate a growing gambling market.


The issue of activity licences and operating permits falls under the Estonian Tax and Customs Board.


There are currently a total of 62 casinos/slot halls. As of September 2014 there is no difference between a casino or slot hall as the criteria they have to fulfil is the same, although some locations operate table games and others just slots. There are actually 35 slot only halls and 27 which also operate table games.


THE GAMBLING ACT 2008 l Types of gambling permitted are: games of chance;


lotteries; totalisator and games of skill. 8 4


01 Back in the early days of the Internet, there was another file-sharing service that emerged in the waning days of Napster. This service was called Kazaa, and it was designed by Estonians, who eventually sold the rights to the product they had created. Years later, it was again Estonian programmers that took what Kaaza had done for file-sharing, but arrived at the idea of mixing it with voice calling (VOIP) and called it Skype. This meant people could make practically free calls, voice or otherwise, as long as they had an Internet connection. A technological revolution was born. While there are similar services now, Skype is still the original, and a source of national pride for Estonians.


l Remote gambling is permitted via telephone, internet and media services.


l Tournament games of chance are also permitted and can take place as a tournament or ring game.


l Games of chance can be organised by a public limited or private limited company with share capital amount of at least €1m.


l Lotteries can be organised by a public limited compa- ny with share capital amount of at least €1m and all those shares must be owned by the Estonian state.


l Games of skill may be organised by a public limited or private limited company with share capital amount of at least €25,000.


l Toto can be organised by public or private limited companies with share capital amounts of at least €130,000.


l Operators must obtain an Activity Licence for games of chance, game of skill and totos.


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