Estonia l
Types of gambling permitted are: games of chance; lotteries; totalisator and games of skill.
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
Lotteries can be organised by a public limited company with share capital amount of at least €1m and all those shares must be owned by the Estonian state.
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.
l
An Operating Permit is issued for the opening of a gaming location to operate games of chance, toto or games of skill, organising remote gambling or organising a lottery. These are issued for five years (lottery and remote gambling) or 20 years (games of skill locations) and five to 20 years (games of chance and toto locations).
l
Gambling is prohibited to those under 21 years or 18 years (toto) and 16 years (lottery).
l
A state fee is paid for the review of an application for an activity licence and this includes €31,960 for the organisation of totalisator.
T
he gambling market in Estonia is fairly new territory. When it was part of the USSR all types of gambling activities were banned
even though illegal casinos still operated despite the prohibition. However the real history of gambling in Estonia began once the country was released from Soviet rule in the early 1990s. At this time the country was so eager to bring in foreign companies that they immediately legalised gambling and dished out licences like there was no tomorrow.
It began with the first Lottery Act of 1994 and the first Gambling Act of 1995 came into force and these opened the doors to legal gambling.
Firstly the state lottery was set up in 1991 and by 1995 the Gambling Act was introduced which although brought law and order and offered a very relaxed industry.
The gambling act of 1995 introduced four types of gambling namely games of chance, games of skill, totalisators and betting and according to this act all operators had to obtain an activity licence and an operation permit. Licences were issued for 10 years
9 0
Olympic Casino provides sports betting under the Olybet brand and these are located in all of
the company’s casinos. Bets are placed through Olybet before or during an event and all sports bars have betting terminals.
whilst operational permits provided for five years.
Gaming boomed during this period and there were some 90 plus casinos in the capital Tallinn by 2008 and over 170 gaming houses and casinos in total in the country. However when the global crisis hit, Estonia also suffered.
In 2009 the new Gambling Act 2008 came into place and the main change was that it provided a legal basis for the rapidly developing online gambling industry. The main points concerning betting include:
l
Taxes are covered by the 2009 Gambling Tax Act which includes:
Toto and Online Gambling – pay five percent on gross revenues.
Lottery – pay 18 percent from tickets sales total.
Accordingly to the Finance Ministry there are currently 23 betting shops in Estonia of which 22 are located in the same building as casinos and are operated by Olympic Casino Eesti.
There are two operators which run the betting shops – Olympic and Totalisaator AS. These two also provide online betting.
Olympic Casino provides sports betting in Estonia under the Olybet brand and these are located in all of the company’s casinos. Bets are placed through Olybet before or during an event and all sports bars have betting terminals and TV screens. This is available at all Olympic Estonian casinos.
In August 2013 Olympic Entertainment Group expanded its online business into the sports betting
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138