iGaming Tax by Jurisdiction: Gaming Duties, Profit Tax and Dividends Compared

iGaming tax comes in layers: a duty on gaming revenue or stakes, license fees and levies, profit tax on the company, and tax on dividends paid to its owners. Jurisdictions mix those layers very differently, so a headline rate says little on its own. This guide sets out each regime's rates as of October 2026 and works one example through with every assumption stated.

How iGaming Is Taxed

Most online gambling taxes start from gross gaming revenue: the stakes players place minus the winnings paid back to them. Some regimes tax stakes instead, which hits low-margin products hardest, and Georgia does that for domestic online betting at 7% of stakes. On top of the gaming charge come fixed license fees, levies tied to revenue, profit tax on what the company earns after costs, and withholding on dividends it pays out.

iGaming Tax Rates by Jurisdiction

The table lists statutory rates and published fees for nine regimes, in alphabetical order, as read in October 2026. Rulings, refunds that need a claim and group structures can change the result.

License fees are the fixed layer, and gambling license cost by country runs from €17,828 a year in Anjouan to €47,450 in Curaçao per license, with Georgia charging about €34,400 per vertical, before domain and key person charges and the one-off charges of year one, such as Curaçao's €4,592 application fee or Georgia's platform audit and integration, capped at about €46,400 for one vertical.

How Each Regime Works

Georgia

Under Article 98(5) of the Tax Code, profit an online casino, slots or betting organizer earns from foreign players is taxed at 5%, and Article 97 defines that profit as bets accepted minus winnings paid. The tax is calculated each calendar month on that base alone, with no deduction for salaries, platform fees or marketing, and because it stands in for profit tax, nothing more is due on profit the company keeps. Random Systems Georgia, which runs the state's control system, charges a further 1% of gross gaming revenue a month.

The rates for Georgian players are different and do not apply to international permits, which may not accept Georgian citizens: 20% of gross gaming revenue for domestic online casino and slots, 7% of stakes for domestic online betting, and 5% withheld on Georgian players' withdrawals. Foreign players' winnings and withdrawals are exempt. Which rate applies to which stream, and how it is filed each month, is the core of gambling tax in Georgia.

Curaçao

The Curaçao Gaming Authority's fee document sets €47,450 a year for a gaming license and lists no tax on gaming revenue. Company profit is taxed at 15% on the first XCG 500,000, about €250,800, and 22% above it. The system is territorial, taxing only Curaçao-source income apportioned by expenses, and there is no withholding tax on dividends.

Malta

Malta charges a fixed €25,000 a year and a monthly compliance contribution on gaming revenue, set per game type, according to the MGA's 2026/2027 fact sheet. The 5% gaming tax applies only to revenue from players based in Malta. Company tax has a 35% headline rate, but the refund system can bring the effective rate to between 0% and 10%, and since 2 September 2025 companies can opt for a 15% final rate with no refund. Malta levies no withholding on dividends to non-residents.

Isle of Man

The Gambling Supervision Commission's application guidance describes online gambling duty "on a sliding scale from 1.5% down to 0.1%", with pool betting at 15%, and no levy on operators beyond a contribution to problem-gambling research and support. The 1.5% band covers yield up to £20 million a year. The standard company tax rate is 0% and dividends carry no withholding, and the full license costs £36,750, about €43,900, a year.

Estonia

Estonia taxes remote gambling at 5.5% of bets less prizes in 2026, down from 6% in 2025, with a monthly return due by the 15th, according to the Tax and Customs Board. Company profit is taxed only when distributed, at 22/78 of the net distribution, and retained profit is untaxed. The license is a one-off state fee of €47,940 for casino games, and the company needs €1,000,000 of share capital for them.

Anjouan, Kahnawake and Tobique

None of the three publishes a gaming tax. That leaves the company's own tax, which depends on where it is incorporated, because none of them publishes a local company rule. An Anjouan or Kahnawake license held by a company in a high-tax country carries that country's profit and dividend tax, so the choice of where to incorporate an iGaming company decides the real rate for these licenses.

Costa Rica

Costa Rica issues no gambling license and taxes betting data-processing companies by headcount under Law 9050: 57 base salaries a year for up to 50 employees, 85 for 51 to 99 and 113 for 100 or more. Company profit is taxed at 30% on Costa Rican-source income and dividends at 15%.

Revenue Tax or Profit Tax: Who Each Suits

A tax on gross gaming revenue is predictable. It follows the top line, is known the day the month closes and does not depend on how costs are booked or where they are charged. A tax on profit is zero in a loss year and takes a larger share as margins rise. Which one costs less depends on the margin.

The table below runs the comparison at €10,000,000 of gross gaming revenue for an online casino holding Georgia's casino and slots permits, on the same assumptions as the worked example further down apart from the margin, and with 5% withheld on Georgian dividends. Georgia's charge rises only through the dividend withholding, Curaçao's through its profit tax, and the Isle of Man's stays flat.

At this scale Georgia's tax costs less than Curaçao's once profit passes about 36% of gross gaming revenue, or about 30% when the parent sits in a 0% treaty country. It stays above the Isle of Man's at every margin, because the Manx duty is 1.5% of yield with no company tax.

Total Tax on One Worked Example

The example holds only on these assumptions:

• An online casino with slots and table games, all players foreign, €1,000,000 of gross gaming revenue a year.
• €300,000 of profit after operating costs but before license fees and taxes, with fees deductible where profit tax applies.
• All after-tax profit paid as a dividend to a corporate shareholder; Georgia shown with 5% withholding and with 0% under a treaty.
• Recurring figures from year two, statutory rates only, and all Curaçao profit treated as Curaçao-source, which is the least favorable case for Curaçao.

Georgia's fees include the 1% monitoring fee and about €34,400 per permit; Malta's include the €15,000 minimum compliance contribution. At this size Georgia's government take is higher than Curaçao's, the Isle of Man's and Malta's with a refund or the 15% rate. Against Malta at the full 35% it is lower with one permit, about level with casino and slots, and higher with all three. The fixed permit fee per vertical drives most of the gap, so Georgia against Curaçao, Malta and the Isle of Man turns on the margin, the number of verticals and the parent's treaty position as well as on standing and banking.

Dividends: The 5% and the Treaties

Dividends a Georgian company pays to a non-resident or an individual are taxed at source at 5% (Tax Code Art. 130(1)). The exemption in Article 130(9) covers only dividends out of profit taxed at the 20% domestic rate, so dividends from foreign-player profit carry the 5% unless a treaty lowers it. Georgia has 58 double tax treaties in force, according to the Ministry of Finance, and those with Malta, Cyprus, the UAE, Estonia and several others set 0% on dividends.

Withholding and monthly gambling returns both run through the company's books, so accounting for an iGaming company in Georgia works on a monthly close from the first month of the permit. A development or platform company in the same group is taxed differently again: with International Company status, it pays 5% on distributed profit and no withholding on its dividends.

iGaming Tax FAQ