Lithuania's Coalition Agrees a Progressive Gambling Tax but Has Yet to Set Rates

Lithuania's three ruling parties want the country's biggest gambling operators to pay more than the flat 22% rate, and they have put a figure of €34 million to €36 million on it. They have not yet chosen the bands, and the Finance Ministry is still doing its sums.

• A working group of Lithuania's three coalition parties agreed on 5 November that gambling should be taxed at progressive rates, according to Seimas member Tomas Tomilinas
• Tomilinas put the extra revenue at about €36 million in remarks reported by the Baltic News Service, while public broadcaster LRT reported a figure of €34 million
• His bill XVP-507, tabled in 2025, would replace the flat 22% rate on gambling revenue with bands of 22%, 27%, 32% and 37%, but the working group has not said whether those bands will be used
• Finance Minister Taurimas Valys said on 4 November that the ministry was assessing such proposals cautiously, including their effect on competitiveness with neighbouring countries
• The government rejected a Farmers and Greens Union bill for a flat 30% rate in September, saying it had not been agreed with the Prime Minister or the coalition

The Coalition Has Agreed the Model, Not the Numbers

The working group, made up of the Social Democrats, the Farmers and Greens Union and the Democrats "Vardan Lietuvos", met on Thursday 5 November to find ways to narrow the 2027 budget deficit. Tomilinas, a Democrats member who chairs the Seimas Social Affairs and Labour Committee, told reporters afterwards that the group had "finally" decided on a progressive model "specifically for gambling", according to the Baltic News Service (BNS). "Now we just need to enter some tariffs and figures, and we will have 36 million," he said, in BNS's Lithuanian report.

LRT reported the same meeting as agreeing the progressive taxation of gambling and lotteries, worth about €34 million. The Finance Ministry was still preparing its formal conclusion on the bill from Tomilinas and colleagues. In an LRT report on 9 November, Tomilinas said he accepted that the change should take effect after a six-month lead time, and that the coalition had not yet published the outcome of its talks.

The plan sits inside a wider package. On 4 November BNS reported that Prime Minister Mindaugas Sinkevičius had announced higher taxes on gambling, lotteries and sugary products after a coalition council the previous week, aiming at about €100 million a year and about €50 million in 2027, with the increases taking effect from July 2027. The 2027 budget plans a deficit of 3.8% of GDP. Valys said on 5 November that final decisions on budget changes would come the following Wednesday, 11 November.

A Bill That Has Waited Since 2025

Lithuania taxes slot machines, table games, bingo, totalisator, betting and remote gambling at 22% of the tax base, stakes less winnings, a rate that rose from 20% on 1 January 2025. Lotteries pay 18%. Tomilinas's bill would amend Article 5 of the Law on Lottery and Gambling Tax so that 22% applies to the first €1 million of the base, 27% from €1 million to €3 million, 32% from €3 million to €5 million and 37% above that.

The Seimas Office listed the bill among the spring session's legislative priorities in its analytical review of 9 March 2026, describing a fairer principle under which larger companies contribute more, with the extra revenue to go to national security. The government had backed that aim in October 2025 but asked the Seimas not to consider the bill then, LRT reported, citing the cost to operators of a centralised remote gambling platform and a planned unified player card.

In September 2026 the government opposed a separate bill from Farmers and Greens member Ligita Girskienė to raise the gambling rate to 30%, the lottery rate to 25% and licence fees as high as €2 million, according to BNS. The Government Chancellery said that proposal had not been agreed with the Prime Minister or coalition partners. Trade reports say the ministry has separately proposed cutting the lottery rate paid to the state from 18% to 10% from 1 July 2027.

Progressive Bands Would Load the Rise Onto the Largest Operators

On the 2025 bands, an operator with a €20 million tax base would pay about €6.95 million rather than €4.4 million, an effective rate near 35%, while a business below €1 million would see no change. Because the higher bands bite only above €1 million, the largest licensees would carry most of the €34 million to €36 million. That lets the coalition call the measure fair while raising real money from a sector already adjusting to advertising curbs, a minimum age raised to 21 and heavy fines, under a regulator that in September blocked Polymarket.

The Finance Ministry Is Still the Brake

The ministry has argued twice in a year that operators already face compliance costs, and Valys is weighing competition from neighbouring markets. The 2028 date in some trade headlines does not appear in the Lithuanian reporting: the coalition's own timetable points to July 2027, subject to a six-month lead time. If agreement slips past this week's budget decisions, that date moves too.

The coalition has settled the principle of a progressive gambling tax and left the hard part, the bands, for later. Until the Finance Ministry signs off on figures, operators know the direction of travel but not the bill.