Georgia’s international igaming licence is now fully live, giving operators that serve players outside the country a 5% tax on gross gaming revenue (GGR), a five-year permit and no requirement to open a local office.
Random Systems Georgia (RSG), the company the government appointed to advise on and oversee the regime, confirmed the full launch this week after a soft launch in July. RSG expects the first licensed operators to start operating soon.
The Random Systems group already oversees gambling activity in Georgia through Malta-registered Random Systems International, which in August was also picked to run Armenia’s national gambling monitoring system from 1 January 2027.
The framework covers foreign-facing business only. Georgian citizens are blocked from licensed platforms, and the tax incentive does not extend to the domestic market, where brands such as Flutter Entertainment’s Adjarabet and Betsson Georgia already operate.
What operators will pay
Licensees pay 5% of GGR in tax plus a 1% regulatory monitoring fee. An annual permit fee of GEL 100,000 (around €33,370) comes on top. Reinvested profits are taxed at 0%.
The five-year licence is sold as a package. It includes banking, payments and compliance services, among them arrangements for processing under merchant category code (MCC) 7995, the code card networks assign to gambling transactions. Onboarding can be completed remotely, and operators do not need a physical office in Georgia.
The Georgia International Strategic Group (GISG), which promotes the commercial offer abroad, points to the software providers, live casino operations, game studios and customer-support teams already working in the country for international companies.
“Georgia is not building another licensing jurisdiction. We are building a country-level ecosystem for international iGaming,” said Vakhtang Katamadze, a member of the supervisory board at Random Systems Georgia.
The legal framework
The regime rests on amendments to the Law on the Organisation of Lotteries, Gambling and Profitable Games, which were sent to parliament under an accelerated procedure in June. The changes create permits for companies offering online casino games, slots and sports betting to players outside Georgia.
Access is limited to foreign nationals and stateless persons, and Georgian citizens are blocked automatically. Each licence is valid for a single website, so an operator running several sites needs a permit for each one.
Failing to meet licence conditions or payment deadlines triggers fines of GEL 20,000 (around €6,670).
Major brands already in Georgia
The new licence arrives in a market where international groups have held positions for years. Flutter, then trading as Paddy Power Betfair, acquired a 51% stake in Adjarabet in 2019. Flutter describes Adjarabet as Georgia’s number one gaming operator and says the brand has also reached first place in neighbouring Armenia.
Betsson entered Georgia in 2015 with the acquisition of Europe-Bet and completed its rebrand to Betsson Georgia in 2025. GVC, now Entain, took a majority stake in Georgian operator Crystalbet in 2018.
On the supply side, Tbilisi hosts operations for Evolution and for Georgian-founded studios Spribe and SmartSoft, alongside teams working for Flutter, Entain and Betsson.
A restricted domestic market
Those brands work under strict domestic rules. Georgia raised its legal gambling age to 25 in 2024, and subsequent exclusion rules for public-sector employees and citizens with criminal records have left more than 1.5 million people barred from gambling in a country of around 3.8 million.
The international licence leaves those restrictions untouched. Lawmakers backing the framework argue it can bring in foreign investment and skilled jobs in technology and marketing while the government keeps its harder line on gambling for Georgian consumers.
How Georgia compares with other hubs
Malta, Gibraltar and the Isle of Man built their operator bases on favourable tax regimes, and two of them are now adjusting to higher costs. Malta moves to a differentiated gaming tax from 1 October, with casino games taxed at 15% and betting at 10%, replacing the uniform 5% rate in place since 2018.
In Gibraltar, Gambling Commissioner Andrew Lyman has rejected claims that the sector is in terminal decline after job cuts, as operators absorb the UK’s increase in Remote Gaming Duty to 40%.
Estonia legislated a staged cut in its online gambling tax, due to reach 4%. Prime Minister Kristen Michal has since ordered an early review of the cut after it brought lower receipts and no new licensed operators.
Georgia’s model differs in scope. The 5% rate applies only to platforms serving foreign customers, which lets the government court foreign investment without loosening rules for local players.
What comes next
RSG says the first operators will go live soon. The number of applications over the coming months, and whether banks and payment providers process MCC 7995 transactions for Georgian permit holders as the package intends, will show if Georgia can draw operators away from established licences.
Lawmakers expect the framework to create skilled jobs in technology and marketing and to widen the country’s service sector. Georgia already has the B2B workforce. The licence will test whether it can also host the operators.
Source: Random Systems Georgia
