How much do casinos and bookmakers pay in taxes?

Publication date: 11 March 2020

Gambling establishments—casinos and bookmakers—make significant contributions to state budgets all over the world. Every gambling operator has to pay taxes on profits.

How much do state budgets get from gambling- and betting-related taxes?

Casinos in Macau pay a tax rate of 35% on their Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR). Additional levies take the tax rate to 39%. In January, gambling operators paid MOP 8.84 billion (USD 1.1 billion) to the state budget. In February 2020, almost all casinos closed due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Serbia is planning to introduce changes to its gambling laws, which were last updated in 2011. These changes suggest a tax rate increase for online casinos and expansion of the land-based casino segment.

• 75% of turnover from betting in Serbia comes from online bets.
• Serbia’s tax rate for online gambling will be increased from 5% of GGR for all verticals to 15% for online betting and 10% for other games.
• The Red Cross of Serbia will continue to receive 40% of government revenue collected from gambling.

Denmark’s online gambling operators might also face an increase in tax rates, from the current 20% to 28%. The government expects the move will eventually bring in DKK 150 million (USD 22.2 million) to its budget.

Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs) owe the government PHP 50 billion in the form of franchise, corporate and other taxes. The Philippine gambling regulator collected at least PHP 8 billion from license fees, representing 2% of GGR.

In 2019, Polish legal bookmakers generated a turnover of PLN 6.7 billion (USD 1.76 billion) and paid over PLN 800 million to the state budget. The grey market grew to nearly 60% of the gambling market in Poland that resulted in a loss of PLN 1.1 billion in tax revenues.

In January 2020, Russia’s regional budgets received the following tax revenues: Krasnodar Krai received almost RUB 35 million, Primorsky Krai more than RUB 10m, Stavropol Krai almost RUB 3m, Moscow Oblast more than RUB 6m, Moscow almost RUB 30m, Kaliningrad Oblast almost RUB 15m, Rostov Oblast more than RUB 10m, and Nizhny Novgorod Oblast almost RUB 4m.