Bulgaria Proposes Full Gambling Advertising Ban in Draft Law

Bulgaria’s Ministry of Finance published a draft law amending the Gambling Act for public consultation on September 23, 2026, proposing a complete ban on gambling advertising, higher licence fees and gambling taxes, and the termination of affiliate operator licences effective January 1, 2027.

The consultation, registered as 12738-K on the Public Consultation Portal, runs until October 23, 2026. The portal’s official summary states the draft seeks to increase state budget revenue from gambling activity and to limit gambling addiction by introducing a complete ban on gambling advertising, while also clarifying provisions whose practical application has produced difficulties. The posted package contains the draft act, its motives, a partial preliminary impact assessment and the Council of Ministers administration’s opinion, each dated September 23, 2026.

Prime Minister Rumen Radev announced the package at the start of the September 23, 2026 government meeting, the Council of Ministers press center reported. He said the only preserved exception is support for sport through advertising on sports kits and facilities, and that the changes also ban the bright illuminated advertisements and markings on casino and gaming-hall storefronts.

“We are in practice introducing a complete ban on gambling advertising,” Radev said. “We do not want gambling to be present in the everyday life of Bulgarian citizens. We do not want aggressive advertising that reaches young people and children.”

Radev said the package also taxes the real financial result of casinos and gaming halls, strengthens controls against money laundering and tax evasion, substantially increases the levy on online gambling with mechanisms directing part of the revenue to sport and education, and obliges all gaming equipment to be connected to the National Revenue Agency in real time.

A Ban With Four Exceptions

The rewritten Article 10 in the draft law text prohibits advertising of gambling games, gambling operators and their related trademarks and distinctive signs regardless of the form, manner or place of dissemination. The prohibition does not apply to information published on the operator’s website and at licensed premises where it is necessary for organising and participating in the games, nor to broadcasts and draws of the state enterprise Bulgarian Sports Totalizator and announcements of their winnings.

Signage on the facade of a gambling premises may not exceed 20 percent of the facade and 50 square metres in total. At least 10 percent of the area must carry a warning that gambling carries a risk of developing addiction, and illuminated panels or other technical means with dynamic, moving or changing content are not permitted on the facade.

Licensed operators may sponsor licensed sports clubs, federations, associations and organisations, as well as events supporting culture, healthcare and education, with the operator’s registered trademark permitted on sports equipment, sports facilities, halls, stadiums and pools, except on products intended for use by minors. Sponsored entities may display the operator’s trademark and name on their websites. Television or online broadcasts of sponsored sports events may not add electronic or digital visualisation of the sponsor’s name or trademark beyond the markings physically present at the venue.

The Council for Electronic Media exercises supervision over the media space and must refer facts bearing the characteristics of an Article 10 violation to the National Revenue Agency. A new Article 9(21) separately prohibits publishing, broadcasting or disseminating in radio and television programmes messages seeking or attracting partners for gambling-related activity when they carry an operator’s name, trademark, logo or other distinctive sign, regardless of the message’s commercial character and even when it contains no information about a gambling game.

Persons who publish, broadcast or disseminate gambling advertising face fines of 10,000 to 20,000 euro or property sanctions of 20,000 to 50,000 euro, doubled for a repeat violation. Breaching the Article 9(21) broadcast-message ban carries the same ranges.

Affiliate Licences End as Fees and Taxes Rise

The draft deletes the Gambling Act’s references to affiliate operators popularising gambling and terminates already-issued affiliate licences effective January 1, 2027. In the motives published with the draft, the ministry says the complete advertising ban entails the suspension of affiliate operators’ activity because it is directly connected to the advertising and promotional presentation of gambling games.

The motives state that the variable component of the two-component state fee is 20 percent of the difference between received bets and paid-out winnings; the draft raises it to 21 percent from January 1, 2027 and to 22 percent from January 1, 2028. For online betting licences the variable component carries a minimum of 100,000 euro per month, not owed in months when the operator conducts no gambling activity.

One-off fees rise to 300,000 euro for non-online games and 400,000 euro for online betting. Casino licences cost 300,000 euro for a five-year term and 600,000 euro for ten years, while slot-machine licences cost 75,000 euro for five years in localities of up to 500,000 residents, 150,000 euro for five years above that population, and 150,000 or 300,000 euro for ten-year terms by the same split. From January 1, 2028, casinos and slot halls also owe a 20 percent variable component with minimums of 200 euro per slot machine, 4,500 euro per roulette wheel or gaming table and 1,000 euro per other gaming equipment, replacing the alternative corporate tax the draft raises for 2027 and repeals from 2028.

An operator may withhold 1 percent of the variable component in 2027, and 2 percent from 2028 onward, when the amount is provided to licensed Olympic sports federations and professional football clubs for sponsorship, advertising and donation. The withheld amounts must be declared electronically to the National Revenue Agency by January 31 of the following year, and sums spent on other purposes are restored to the budget with statutory interest.

Annual social-responsibility contributions rise to 60,000 euro for online betting, 20,000 euro for casino games and 10,000 euro for all other games. The revenue is distributed in equal amounts to the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the Ministry of Health and, for the first time, the Ministry of Education and Science, whose share funds protection of young people from gambling and addiction prevention. The three ministries must report their spending to the Council of Ministers by March 31 of the following year.

A new Article 31 requires payment institutions, banks and electronic-money companies to remit to the state budget the portion of any fee or commission on gambling payment transactions that exceeds 1.5 percent of the transaction value, with monthly declarations due by the 15th. Licences for the production, import, distribution and servicing of gaming equipment gain one-off state fees of 50,000 euro for five years and 100,000 euro for ten years.

Foreign Operators, Revenue-Agency Link and Timetable

Foreign legal entities licensed for online betting must organise the activity through a registered place of business activity in Bulgaria, entered in the BULSTAT register before the licence certificate is issued, through which the revenues from online betting and their attributable expenses are reported. Online licensees licensed before the law takes effect have until June 30, 2027 to comply; failure brings final revocation of the licence by the National Revenue Agency’s executive director.

“Whoever operates in the Bulgarian market and profits from it will report here, will pay taxes here and will be subject to full control by the Bulgarian state,” Radev said.

A new Article 42a obliges casino and gaming-hall operators to ensure automated transmission of data on bets placed and winnings paid on gaming equipment to the National Revenue Agency’s system. The implementing ordinance is due by March 31, 2027, and operators must bring their activity into compliance by June 30, 2027.

The law enters into force on January 1, 2027, except for the casino and slot-machine variable-fee provisions and the repeal of the alternative tax, which take effect on January 1, 2028. Licences issued by December 31, 2026 do not owe the new one-off fee amounts. Lev-denominated investment, payout and sanction amounts are converted to euro following Bulgaria’s adoption of the euro, with most fines updated for the first time since 2014 and some since 2012 to account for inflation, according to the motives.

Comments may be submitted until October 23, 2026 through the Public Consultation Portal, by email to the ministry’s Tax Policy Directorate, through the secure electronic delivery system or by post, and commenters must state whether they act on their own behalf or on behalf of another person, according to the ministry’s consultation page. The motives commit the ministry to publishing a report of the proposals received, with reasons for any not accepted, after the consultation closes.