The European Commission is weighing a new tax on online gambling as part of a broader strategy to raise fresh revenue for the EU’s next seven-year budget cycle, covering 2028 to 2034. According to a document shared with national governments and the European Parliament and viewed by POLITICO, the measure could generate €1.9 billion annually — contributing to a wider package of levies that could collectively bring in as much as €13.3 billion over the full budget period.
The proposal sits alongside potential taxes on crypto transactions and large digital companies, reflecting Brussels’ increasingly assertive search for new financing mechanisms as it prepares for a budget approaching €2 trillion — a sum that includes significant repayments tied to the bloc’s post-COVID debt programme.
Table of Contents
The mechanics of the gambling tax
The proposed online gambling levy is set at 3% of net turnover — a rate the Commission projects would yield €1.9 billion per year across the EU’s 27 member states. The measure was revived by lawmakers in the European Parliament, who argued that gambling, crypto platforms and digital giants should all contribute to the bloc’s common finances.
Three battlefronts — and three sets of opponents
The gambling tax is just one element of a broader revenue package, each component of which faces its own political resistance.
A 3% tax on large digital companies is estimated to generate €5 billion annually — but the majority of that burden would fall on American firms, raising serious concerns about potential US trade retaliation. The Commission based its modelling on existing digital taxes in Italy, Spain and France, but scaling that approach to 27 member states is expected to encounter fierce resistance.
On crypto, a 0.1% transaction tax is projected to yield €3 to €4 billion annually, with a capital gains tax potentially adding a further €1 to €2.4 billion. Each carries its own opposition from member states with significant crypto industries or tax-competitive financial sectors.
For the gambling tax specifically, Malta is the most exposed and the most likely to push back hardest. The island’s economy is deeply intertwined with the online gambling industry — hosting dozens of major licensed operators — and a 3% net turnover levy applied at EU level would represent a direct threat to that economic model.
The unanimous approval problem
The fundamental obstacle facing every element of this package is the EU’s own resources framework, which requires unanimous approval from all 27 member governments. With member states as diverse as Malta, Ireland and Hungary holding veto power over any new revenue measure, the path from proposal to legislation is long and deeply uncertain.
Cyprus, which holds the Council presidency, is preparing to present revised numbers and revised allocations around June 10 — a moment that will clarify how seriously member states are taking the package and where the most significant fault lines lie.
The broader context
The gambling tax proposal arrives at a moment of acute fiscal pressure for the EU. The bloc needs to finance defence spending, industrial policy, green transition programmes and the repayment of post-COVID debt — all against a backdrop of member states reluctant to increase direct national contributions. New revenue streams that can be framed as taxes on industries rather than on citizens are politically attractive in that context, even when the practical obstacles to implementing them are considerable.
For the online gambling industry, the prospect of a 3% EU-wide net turnover tax — on top of existing national tax regimes — represents a significant additional cost burden. How operators, regulators and member states respond to the proposal over the coming months will be one of the most closely watched regulatory stories in European iGaming for years.
