Georgia's prime minister, Irakli Garibashvili, has approved a set of revisions to the nation's gambling legislation including new guidelines restricting internet casinos to land-based businesses.
Since 2021, when Georgia sought to overhaul its regulatory system in response to safer gaming concerns amid the nation's ascent as a land-based gambling hotspot, the reforms represent the biggest upheaval to the gambling rules of the country.
On that occasion, the Georgian parliament decided to forbid TV advertising, increase taxes on online gambling companies by 70% and raise the gambling age to 25, therefore excluding public employees and the self-excluded from engaging in gaming.
Ring-fenced licencing for casinos
Under the proposed regulations, the 10 land-based casino companies—including the three biggest ones, Casino Adjara, Crystalbet, and Iveria—would be allowed to have an online casino license.
Similarly, the availability of internet slots would be limited to retail slots parlours as well as sports betting to physical bookies.
Georgia:
The New Rules are meant to support domestic industry.
Although extra online-only licences are now offered, the government is asking €1.6m annually from each licence holder.
Given the area, Alex Szilaghi, president of Szilaghi Consulting, notes that this was a significant cost.
"In my view, it's a huge amount of money for Georgia – not to mention for any country within the EU," he remarks. "They want to let nearby businesses flourish and establish a fair playing field for everyone.
"These developments will enable land-based casinos to have online casinos and will also let the companies interested in the online business to essentially acquire the licence just for the online casino."
safer gaming incentive
According to Garibashvili, the measures would be meant to counteract the negative effects of gambling, which have lately become a concern especially among younger groups and underlined the justification for increasing the gaming age to 25 in 2021.
Szilaghi further contends that the country's gambling legislation is meant to guarantee appropriate application of licencing regulations.
"Current attempts are also intended to block illegal gambling, as Georgia is one of the countries that is overrun with the activity," he says. "They needed a legal framework to be able to block that and let these companies come in legally by requesting a licence."
The local business criticised the Georgian city of Batumi's announcement last month about the increase of gaming table and machine costs.
