Bulgarian National Revenue Agency

Since August 2020 the National Revenue Agency (NRA) has overseen gambling in Bulgaria: it licenses, controls and collects dues, and approves types of gaming equipment and software and operators' game rules. Applications are filed at NRA headquarters on paper or electronically with a qualified e-signature; the agency checks the documents, its executive director decides, the licence is provided within 14 days of service of the decision, and the certificate is handed over there.

Each game type needs its own licence: lotteries (traditional and instant, tombola, toto, lotto, bingo, keno); betting on sports, horse and dog races, random events and knowledge of facts; slots; casino games. All of these except tombola and instant lottery can be run online, over the internet, mobile devices, radio, television and satellite. An online licence goes to a commercial company registered in Bulgaria, another EU or EEA state or Switzerland, or to the state. Suppliers receive licences for the manufacture or import, distribution and servicing of gaming equipment, sole traders included.

A licence runs for 5 or 10 years. Renewal for the same term is requested no earlier than 6 and no later than two months before expiry and is charged the issue fee; an operator who misses the window may apply for a new licence with only the changed documents. Slot, casino and equipment licences require proof of the investments made (for 10 years, in a separately set amount), and for slots, casinos and equipment imports they stay at or above the minimum for the whole term. The document review fee follows the fee tariff and is non-refundable; for an electronic application it is 95% of the tariff amount. Licence maintenance fees are declared monthly, by the 15th of the following month, each licence carries an annual contribution for socially responsible conduct, and the NRA refunds overpayments on request. Online slot and casino games pay corporate tax; games where the stake is part of the price of a phone or other electronic service pay 20% tax on the price increase (from 27.03.2026), withheld by the telecom operator by the 10th of the following month. Gaming halls and casinos pay a quarterly tax on the machines and tables entered in the licence: €409.03 per slot machine seat, €11,248.42 per roulette table, €2,556.46 per other casino device, due by the 15th of the month after the quarter.

The operator's central system and communications equipment sit in Bulgaria, another EU or EEA state or Switzerland, and deposits and payouts go through an account at a bank licensed in one of them. The system registers and identifies players and sends the NRA server real-time data over a leased line on game sessions and each player's stake and winnings. It, the local control server, communications equipment and gaming software, with every new version, go into the register of the Bulgarian Institute of Metrology. A company from another EU or EEA state or Switzerland appoints a representative with an address in Bulgaria. A slot machine licence goes to an LLC or joint-stock company with fully paid-up capital of at least BGN 750,000, a casino licence to an LLC or joint-stock company with registered shares and such capital of at least BGN 1,500,000. Operators warn of gambling addiction risk on their websites, give counselling and therapy information and keep people in the NRA register of vulnerable persons out of play. The NRA keeps registers of operators, issued licences, testing laboratories and affiliates promoting gambling, and publishes a list of licence holders' websites.