Bulgaria
Republic of Bulgaria
- Online casinoRegulated
- Online sports bettingRegulated
- Online pokerRegulated
- Online bingoRegulated
- iLotteryMonopoly
- Regulator
- National Revenue Agency
- Headline tax
- 20% GGR
- Licence required
- Yes
- Last verified
- 4 Aug 2026
Summary
Bulgaria licenses online gambling through its tax authority. The Gambling Act of 2012 originally put a dedicated State Commission on Gambling in charge, but amendments in force from 8 August 2020 dissolved the Commission and made the Executive Director of the National Revenue Agency the sole licensing authority, so one body now issues licences, supervises operators, collects the gambling fees and maintains the public registers. Online betting, casino games, slots, poker and bingo are all licensable to private operators for five or ten years; lottery games other than raffles and bingo are reserved by statute to the state enterprise Bulgarian Sports Totalizator. The distinguishing feature of the regime is technical rather than fiscal: a licensee must run a local control server in Bulgaria that is physically connected to the National Revenue Agency control server and replicates data in real time, and all player, bet and winnings data must be stored in the country. Online operators pay a monthly charge of 20 per cent of gross gaming revenue. Bulgaria adopted the euro on 1 January 2026.
Key facts
- Regulator
- National Revenue Agency (NRA)
- Regulator type
- Government ministry
- Headline tax
- 20% GGR
- Licence required
- Yes
- Minimum age
- 18+
- Tax base
- Legal 500 reports a monthly recurring fee of 20 per cent of gross gaming revenue, defined as bets received minus winnings paid out, for online operators. CMS states the same 20 per cent charge for online sports and event betting and reports 20 per cent on commissions collected for online slot machines. Land-based casinos and gaming halls pay fixed quarterly amounts per machine or seat instead.
- Capital
- Sofia
- Currency
- EUR
- Official languages
- Bulgarian
Licensing
- Licence required
- Yes
- Application window
- Rolling
- Local establishment required
- Not yet verified
- Local server required
- Yes
- Barriers to entry
- Legal 500 reports a business-to-consumer filing fee of between EUR 20,000 and EUR 35,000, an issuance fee of approximately EUR 0.2 million and an annual responsible gaming fee of approximately EUR 30,000, with business-to-business licensing fees around EUR 20,000. The structural requirement is technical: at least a functional local control server, physically connected to the control server of the National Revenue Agency, must be located in Bulgaria with real-time data replication, and CMS adds that all data on registration, identification, bets and winnings must be stored in Bulgaria.
Licence types
B2C gambling licence
- Scope
- Player-facing operation of online betting, online casino games, online slot machines, poker and tournaments. Issued by the Executive Director of the National Revenue Agency.
- Term
- 5 or 10 years, at the choice of the applicant
B2B gambling licence
- Scope
- Production, distribution and import of gaming equipment and systems.
- Term
- 5 or 10 years
Taxation
- Headline GGR tax
- 20% GGR
- Effective date
- Not yet verified
- Corporate tax
- 10%
- Player winnings tax
- No separate tax on player winnings was identified in the sources consulted. Legal 500 notes an operator obligation to declare winnings exceeding EUR 2,500 on a yearly basis.
- Tax base
- Legal 500 reports a monthly recurring fee of 20 per cent of gross gaming revenue, defined as bets received minus winnings paid out, for online operators. CMS states the same 20 per cent charge for online sports and event betting and reports 20 per cent on commissions collected for online slot machines. Land-based casinos and gaming halls pay fixed quarterly amounts per machine or seat instead.
Earmarked levies
- Annual corporate social responsibility contribution: CMS reports approximately EUR 30,000 for online betting, EUR 10,000 for casino and EUR 5,000 for other games, per licence
Compliance
- Minimum age
- 18+
- National self-exclusion
- Not yet verified
- Data localisation
- For online gambling, all data relating to the provision of the service, including player registration and identification, bets placed and winnings paid, must be stored in Bulgaria, and a local control server must be physically connected to the control server of the National Revenue Agency.
- KYC requirements
- Not yet verified
- Stake limits
- Not yet verified
Enforcement
- ISP blocking
- Yes
- DNS blocking
- Not yet verified
- Payment blocking
- Not yet verified
- App store takedowns
- Not yet verified
- Administrative penalties
- Legal 500 reports administrative penalties up to EUR 2.5 million for unlicensed activity, plus licence revocation.
- Criminal penalties
- Legal 500 reports criminal penalties of up to six to ten years imprisonment for serious violations.
- Operator liability
- Unlicensed gambling websites are blocked. The CMS Europe guide reported more than 6,000 sites blocked as at its April 2023 edition, but no current figure could be traced to a source we fetched, so blocklistSize is left null rather than carry a stale number.
Outlook
Bulgaria is stable but under-reported. The two things to watch are the state of the National Revenue Agency registers, which the regulator was still standing up under Article 20 of the Gambling Act, and the size and effectiveness of the website blocking programme, for which no current public figure could be found. The euro changeover on 1 January 2026 also means every lev-denominated fee and threshold in older guidance needs restating, and older secondary sources will keep quoting lev figures for some time.
Frequently asked questions
- Who regulates gambling in Bulgaria?
- The National Revenue Agency. Its Executive Director is the sole licensing authority. The former State Commission on Gambling was dissolved with effect from 8 August 2020.
- Can private operators run an online lottery in Bulgaria?
- No. Lottery games other than raffles and bingo are the exclusive right of the state, awarded by statute to the state enterprise Bulgarian Sports Totalizator.
- Does Bulgaria require servers in the country?
- Yes. An online licensee must have at least a functional local control server in Bulgaria, physically connected to the control server of the National Revenue Agency, with real-time data replication.
Sources
- Gambling
National Revenue Agency of Bulgaria (Natsionalna agentsia za prihodite)
Tier 1Accessed 4 Aug 2026 - Bulgaria joins the euro area
European Central Bank
Tier 1Accessed 4 Aug 2026 - Bulgaria: Gambling Law - Country Comparative Guide
The Legal 500
Legal 500 describes the business-to-consumer issuance fee as approximately EUR 0.2 million, while CMS describes an annual charge of BGN 400,000 (about EUR 200,000) for online sports and event betting. The two may be the same charge described as one-off in one source and annual in the other. Neither is recorded as an applicationFee or annualFee on a licence type until the position can be confirmed against the Gambling Act.
Tier 3Accessed 4 Aug 2026 - Tier 3Accessed 4 Aug 2026
- CMS Expert Guide to online gambling regulation in Europe - Bulgaria
CMS Legal
This edition is dated 27 April 2023. Its figure of more than 6,000 blocked websites is quoted in the enforcement narrative but is not recorded in blocklistSize, because it is three years old.
Tier 3Accessed 4 Aug 2026Published 27 Apr 2023