Bulgaria: Amendments to the Law on Gambling leads to diversion of investments for millions from Bulgaria

International Tax Review is part of Legal Benchmarking Limited, 1-2 Paris Garden, London, SE1 8ND

Copyright © Legal Benchmarking Limited and its affiliated companies 2025

Accessibility | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Modern Slavery Statement

Bulgaria: Amendments to the Law on Gambling leads to diversion of investments for millions from Bulgaria

pechilkova.jpg

Donka Pechilkova

According to a decision of the Sofia City Court, effectively from June 17 2013, a total of 22 sites for sports betting are forbidden by the State Gambling Committee. The reason is that they do not have the licence required by the Law on Gambling that entered into force last year. Among the online portals are the biggest betting sites in the world. The number of the blocked websites increases every two weeks, due to the new alternative websites that open daily. Officially the amendments, referring to hundreds of millions of leva and are not only connected with betting via the internet, but imposes an unprecedented censorship on the internet, comparable with that of countries like North Korea, China, Iran, Iraq, Syria and others.

The announcement of the forbidden sites list legally is treated as notice to the gambling companies to block the access to their sites from Bulgaria or to limit the acceptance of bets.

If the access is not stopped, the committee will then address the Sofia Regional Court to announce its verdict and if the court rules a decision in favour of the regulator, the ball then swings off to the internet suppliers who will have to ban access to the quoted sites.

The paradox is that in accordance with the Law on Gambling, the sites should have licences but at the same time there is no law frame that specifies what the procedure for issuing such licences is. Because of that, though there are deposited applications for the issuing of licences for online betting from big companies, the licensing procedure cannot start for a year now as the State Committee itself has not yet prepared what is necessary for the purpose of regulations to the law.

The fact is that this situation chased away companies that invested millions in the country, while in other European countries they sponsor, for example, football teams like Manchester United, Barcelona, Milan and others.

The conclusion is that in this way the state will stimulate with tens and even hundreds of millions of leva the illegal bookmakers throughout Bulgaria, which means that hundreds of millions of tax will not be delivered to the Bulgarian treasury.

Donka Pechilkova (donka.pechilkova@eurofast.eu)

Eurofast Global, Sofia Office

Tel: +359 2 988 69 77

Website: www.eurofast.eu

more across site & shared bottom lb ros

More from across our site

The UK’s Labour government has an unpopular prime minister, an unpopular chancellor and not a lot of good options as it prepares to deliver its autumn Budget
Awards
The firms picked up five major awards between them at a gala ceremony held at New York’s prestigious Metropolitan Club
The streaming company’s operating income was $400m below expectations following the dispute; in other news, the OECD has released updates for 25 TP country profiles
Software company Oracle has won the right to have its A$250m dispute with the ATO stayed, paving the way for a mutual agreement procedure
If the US doesn't participate in pillar two then global consensus on the project can’t be a reality, tax academic René Matteotti also suggests
If it gets pillar two right, India may be the ideal country that finds a balance between its global commitments and its national interests, Sameer Sharma argues
As World Tax unveils its much-anticipated rankings for 2026, we focus on EMEA’s top performers in the first of three regional analyses
Firms are spending serious money to expand their tax advisory practices internationally – this proves that the tax practice is no mere sideshow
The controversial deal would ‘preserve the gains achieved under pillar two’, the OECD said; in other news, HMRC outlined its approach to dealing with ‘harmful’ tax advisers
Former EY and Deloitte tax specialists will staff the new operation, which provides the firm with new offices in Tokyo and Osaka
Gift this article