Georgia’s parliament is considering draft legislation that would create a separate online gambling licence for operators serving exclusively foreign customers. Under the proposal, those operators would pay gross gaming revenue (GGR) tax at 5%, compared with the standard 20% applied to platforms serving the Georgian domestic market.
The bill is moving through parliament under an accelerated procedure. It covers online casino and sports betting products. Georgian citizens would be automatically blocked from platforms operating under the new licence category.
What the licence framework includes
The draft proposes amendments to the law On the Organisation of Lotteries, Gambling and Profitable Games. The new licence would be available only to operators whose customers are entirely foreign citizens or stateless persons. GGR is defined in the bill as the difference between stakes received and winnings paid out.
Each licence would run for five years. The annual fee is set at €33,000. Operators that miss payment deadlines or fail to meet licence conditions face a fine of €6,600. The draft also limits licence holders to a single domain per licence, reducing the current allowance of two websites to one.
The 5% GGR tax rate is the framework’s central commercial incentive. Operators serving Georgian customers are subject to 20% GGR tax, and the lower rate for the foreign-facing segment is not available to them.
How this compares to established licensing jurisdictions
Several established iGaming licensing jurisdictions have used low tax rates to attract international operators. Gibraltar has built its position over 25 years partly on competitive tax terms. Malta drew operators from across Europe by offering rates below most EU states, and remains the bloc’s largest iGaming licensing cluster. Estonia has plans to reduce its GGR rate to 4% by 2029.
Georgia’s model separates the domestic and export segments by design. The 20% rate remains for operators serving Georgian users, while the 5% rate applies exclusively to platforms restricted from Georgian citizens. Companies looking to establish an export-focused licensing base without entering the Georgian domestic market under standard conditions fall into the 5% category.
Discussion at EU level about harmonised gambling taxation adds context: if Brussels advances a minimum-rate framework for member states, jurisdictions outside the EU with lower rates could become more attractive to operators seeking fiscal flexibility. Georgia is not an EU member, so any EU-wide floor would not apply to it.
Enforcement is the open question
The bill’s practical effectiveness turns on access controls. Georgian citizens must be excluded from foreign-facing platforms, but the draft does not specify the technical standard operators would need to meet to demonstrate that exclusion. The fine for missing payment deadlines or breaching licence conditions is €6,600, but no separate penalty for citizen-access failures appears in the published text.
For operators evaluating Georgia as a licensing base, how compliance is verified will matter at least as much as the 5% tax rate. A low-tax framework with unclear enforcement requirements adds regulatory risk alongside the fiscal benefit.
Parliament is expected to move quickly given the accelerated procedure. How the final text handles the access-control obligation will determine whether the framework attracts established operators or mainly draws smaller companies prepared to accept ambiguity in a new regime.
Source: Georgian parliament
