Georgia’s government has submitted draft legislation to parliament that would raise financial penalties for gambling licensing violations across all operator categories, with some fines increasing by as much as 900%. The amendments target the law “On Arranging Lotteries, Gambling and Prize Games” and are scheduled to take effect on 1 June 2026.
Fine Structure Under the Draft Law
The proposed changes apply differentiated increases depending on operator type. Casino operators face the steepest absolute increase, with fines rising from 7,000 GEL to 20,000 GEL — a near-tripling of the current penalty. Slot machine salon operators will see the most significant proportional jump, from 1,000 GEL to 10,000 GEL, a tenfold increase. Gambling club licence holders and operators of gambling and prize games will face fines rising from 2,000 GEL to 10,000 GEL. Operators providing casino, slot machine, and totalizator games in electronic or system-based formats will face the same ceiling as land-based casinos, with fines climbing from 7,000 GEL to 20,000 GEL.
The Ministry of Finance prepared the amendments and submitted them to parliament after identifying a systemic pattern of deliberate non-compliance across the sector.
“In many cases, it is economically more beneficial for a licence holder to violate the licensing conditions and then pay the fine, rather than fully comply with the established requirements.” — Georgian government, explanatory note
The Compliance Calculus Problem
The government’s justification goes beyond the fines being too low in absolute terms. The core finding is structural: current penalties are insufficiently punitive relative to the cost of compliance, meaning operators rationally choose violation over adherence. Paying a fine repeatedly becomes a line item rather than a deterrent.
This is the same logic that regulators in more mature markets — including the UKGC and the Dutch KSA — have cited when escalating financial penalties and introducing non-financial sanctions such as licence suspension. Georgia’s approach mirrors that trajectory, relying on financial escalation as the primary mechanism to shift the operator calculus, at least in this legislative phase.
Whether the new ceiling of 20,000 GEL is sufficient to change behaviour at scale remains an open question. The government has not indicated it is considering complementary measures such as automatic licence review triggers or escalating repeat-offence penalties, though the explanatory note acknowledges the existing framework has failed to produce “proper prevention.”
Context: Georgia’s Broader Regulatory Push
The fine increase is one component of a more comprehensive tightening of Georgia’s gambling framework. From 1 July 2026, land-based and online gambling will be prohibited for Georgian citizens under 25 and foreign nationals under 18. Operators allowing underage access face fines of up to 293,050 GEL, doubling to 586,090 GEL for repeat violations.
The Revenue Service was assigned surveillance responsibilities over gambling licences through executive orders issued in 2025. By December 2025, the agency had registered 1,577,247 individuals in the national exclusion registry, including approximately 36,000 voluntary self-exclusions.
Georgia’s online gambling framework was also restructured significantly from December 2024, when new rules introduced GGR-based taxation at 15% for Georgian players and 5% for foreign players, alongside substantial annual permit fees — 1,000,000 GEL for online slot salons and 5,000,000 GEL for standalone online casinos.
The fine increase legislation sits within this broader pattern of Georgia building out enforcement infrastructure to match an expanded and more formally regulated market. Parliament is expected to begin review of the draft amendments in the coming weeks.
Source: Georgian government / Parliament of Georgia
