The Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU has left a common EU gambling tax out of its revised Negotiating Box for the 2028-2034 budget, circulated on 10 October 2026. The draft lists five new own resources, including levies on tobacco and e-waste, and caps commitments at €1.62trn in constant 2025 prices.
Ireland holds the rotating Council presidency from July to December 2026 and is steering talks on the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). The Council document 13922/26, addressed to member states’ permanent representatives, contains no reference to gambling or online gambling in its own resources section.
What the draft taxes
Paragraph 137 of the Negotiating Box sets out the new revenue streams, all still in square brackets, which means member states have not agreed them. The corporate contribution, called the Corporate Resource for Europe (CORE) elsewhere in the text, applies to companies with annual net turnover of €100m or more.
| Own resource | Basis | Proposed rate |
|---|---|---|
| Emissions Trading System (ETS) | ETS revenues | 30% call rate |
| Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) | CBAM revenues | 90% call rate |
| Tobacco | Tobacco released for consumption, at minimum duty rates | 15% call rate |
| E-waste | Non-collected electrical and electronic equipment | €2 per kg |
| Corporate contribution (CORE) | Annual net turnover from €100m | €100,000 to €750,000 a year |
Source: Council of the EU, MFF 2028-2034 Negotiating Box, 10 October 2026.
The Irish Presidency said the new own resources package would raise about €55bn a year and could be in place by 2028, while noting that member states remain divided on the options. The overall envelope is 8%, or €141bn, below the European Commission’s proposal and equal to 1.16% of EU gross national income (GNI), according to the presidency. In current prices the document gives illustrative commitments of €1.83trn.
The EU gambling tax idea
The levy left out of the draft was promoted in the European Parliament by Victor Negrescu, a Romanian MEP from the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group and Vice-President of the European Parliament. He argued for a 1% EU-level tax on online gambling and betting revenue, with the proceeds going to education and youth programmes.
National taxes on online gambling profits across the EU range from about 5% to nearly 40%, according to an analysis by law firm DLA Piper, which noted that any EU levy would need the approval of all 27 member states. TGE reported in February that the EU iGaming tax proposal was gaining support in Brussels.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the Irish text would “act as a catalyst to move negotiations forward”. Thomas Byrne, Minister of State for European Affairs and Defence, who chairs the General Affairs Council, set the goal of “reaching a final agreement on the next MFF before the end of 2026”.
Next steps
The Negotiating Box is not binding. The presidency asked member states to reflect on it during the week after 10 October, and EU leaders will discuss it at the October European Council. Under the EU treaties, the MFF regulation needs unanimity in the Council and the consent of the European Parliament, while a new own resources decision needs unanimity and ratification by every member state.
That gives any single government a veto over new EU taxes. More coverage of gambling levies is in TGE’s tax archive.
Source: Council of the European Union
