Georgia Targets Foreign Operators With 5% Tax Licence Category

What's on the table

Georgia has submitted draft amendments to its gambling law — under an accelerated parliamentary process — that would create a standalone licensing category specifically for international online gambling operators. The headline number is a 5% gambling tax, which is notably low by European standards. The legislation targets the existing framework governing lotteries, gambling, and profitable games, signalling a deliberate policy choice to attract foreign-facing operators rather than just tidy up domestic rules.

Why Georgia, why now

The timing sits alongside SBC Summit Tbilisi, which is bringing together reportedly 2,500 industry participants to discuss exactly this kind of maturation story — how Eastern European and Central Asian markets move beyond the land-grab phase toward sustainable, regulated operations. Georgia's move fits that narrative closely. Rather than waiting for operators to route business through opaque offshore structures, Tbilisi appears to be attempting to formalise and tax that activity directly, on competitive terms.

What the licence design suggests

A few things are worth reading into the structure as reported:

• A dedicated foreign category means domestic and international operators won't necessarily compete under identical rules — a common design choice to protect local incumbents while still courting international capital.
• The accelerated legislative track suggests political will exists to move quickly, though it also means the final text could still shift before passage.
• A 5% rate is low enough to make Georgia genuinely price-competitive with better-known licensing jurisdictions, which matters for operators doing margin arithmetic on regulated-market entry costs.

Operator takeaway

For B2B suppliers and operators currently weighing Eastern Europe, Georgia's proposal deserves a slot on the regulatory watch list — not as a done deal, but as a credible jurisdiction that's actively trying to make itself easy to enter legally. The low tax rate reduces the cost of compliance relative to revenue, which is the core friction point that keeps operators on grey-market channels longer than regulators would like. If the draft passes largely intact, operators could find a straightforward regulated pathway into a market that sits at the crossroads of European and Central Asian player bases. The practical next step is tracking the parliamentary timeline and watching whether the final licence conditions — on things like player verification, responsible gambling obligations, and local substance requirements — preserve that competitive positioning or erode it with expensive compliance add-ons.