Albania will license up to 10 online sports betting operators under Decision No. 194, ending a blanket gambling ban that has applied since 2019.
The decision was adopted on 26 March 2026 and entered into force on 30 March. The Gambling Supervisory Authority (AMLF) completed the last of eight implementing regulations in July 2026, which clears the way for a licensing competition. No start date has been published.
Only online sports betting returns. Betting shops, slot halls and land-based casinos stay prohibited, with casinos permitted only inside five-star hotels.
What a licence costs
Applicants must be Albanian joint-stock companies with gambling experience in at least three EU or OECD markets. The framework sets a minimum annual turnover of €20 million (ALL 2 billion) and minimum share capital of €400,000 (ALL 40 million).
The non-refundable application fee is ALL 500,000, around €5,100 at current rates. The minimum licence fee is ALL 400 million, around €4 million. Licences run for 10 years.
Operators pay 15% of GGR into a special fund for culture, sport, technology and innovation, on top of the standard 15% corporate income tax. The government estimates the regime will raise about €20 million a year.
How applications will be scored
AMLF runs a single-stage competitive procedure alongside a Licensing Commission, scoring applicants out of 100 points: 30 for the economic offer, 30 for industry experience, 20 for organisational and administrative capacity, 15 for technological and software capability, and 5 for the business plan. Applicants are ranked in descending order by total score, and ties are settled by lottery.
Applications close 45 calendar days after the competition notice is published.
The market on offer
Albanian gambling turned over about €700 million in 2018 across roughly 4,000 betting shops. Parliament voted that year to shut the sector down from 2019, citing gambling addiction, pressure on low-income households, sports integrity concerns and alleged links to organised crime.
Hendri Hanaj, founder and partner at Hashtag Lawyers, described the pre-ban retail estate.
There were a lot of betting offices in Albania, everywhere, near schools and in local neighbourhoods.
Betting continued through offshore sites after the ban. Unregulated online sports betting in Albania generated an estimated $126 million in GGR in 2025, up from $117 million in 2024. Counting online casino and poker, total unregulated online GGR reached about $229 million last year. Those figures sit inside a wider pattern: the Global Coalition for Innovation and Sustainability estimated that unregulated online gambling handled $5.9 trillion in wagers in 2025.
Prime Minister Edi Rama has framed the reopening as a revenue and control measure.
We are talking about taking this activity out of the black economy and bringing profits into the light.
Payments, ID checks and self-exclusion
Deposits and withdrawals must move through Albanian banks, licensed e-money institutions or other approved payment providers. Cash wagering is prohibited. Players register with a national ID card, and operators must keep player records for at least three years.
The framework also requires a national self-exclusion register, and family members can request that a player be excluded. That package puts Albania close to the channelling-plus-protection model other European governments are now writing into law, including Greece’s reform bill targeting the black market.
When the competition opens
AMLF has not said when it will publish the competition notice. Hanaj expects licences could be awarded in the coming year or two, given Albania’s target of EU accession around 2030, though he describes that timing as speculation.
The entry terms decide who bids. A €4 million minimum licence fee, a €20 million turnover test and proof of activity in three EU or OECD markets rule out domestic startups and point to established international operators, several of which are already weighing new European openings such as the end of Austria’s online monopoly. Ten licences for a market of 2.4 million people is a tight field, and the scoring gives 30 of 100 points to the economic offer, so fee bids are likely to land well above the floor. Until the notice appears, unlicensed sites keep the entire Albanian market.
Source: Albanian Council of Ministers
