Armenia Intends to Impose Additional Taxes on Bookmakers and Sweepstakes

The Armenian parliament has passed the first reading of state duty amendments that would see duty increased for betting, sweepstakes and online gaming.

According to Deputy Minister of Finance Arman Poghosyan, the problem is that although these companies have been paying tax on profit since 2021, the need for new regulations has arisen, as the sector’s turnover has grown dramatically since 2017- from 140 billion drams to 4.2 trillion drams in the first 9 months of this year ($1 – 395.30 drams).

The amendments call for revising the licenses provided to these companies and introducing a quota system.

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In particular, a company organising Internet gambling with the winnings will have to buy from the state the right to accept bets worth 100 billion drams and pay 175 million drams in duty for every 100 billion.

The system for sweepstakes is different – for the right to accept bets of 50 million drams, they will have to pay additionally 5 million drams.

The proposed changes are expected to generate additional revenues of 10 billion drams annually, except for 2023, as the law is to enter into force on July 1.