Legislators have moved a step forward to implementing an EU-wide levy on gambling revenues, although the prospect still remains far off – for now.

A 1% levy on gambling was proposed by Romanian politician Victor Negrescu, Vice President of the European Parliament and a member of the Budget Committee, in February.

Next Wednesday, 27 May, the EU Budget Committee will hold a meeting on how such a measure could – and maybe more importantly should – proceed. The meeting will be led by Piotr Serafin, the EU Budget Commissioner.

The Socialists and Democrats (S&D) political bloc lent its support to the proposal, with proponents arguing that a levy will generate additional funding for health, education and youth initiatives across the EU.

Specifics of the proposal have not been fully confirmed, however. What we know for now is that the 1% levy would be applied to either gambling revenues or turnover from across the 27 EU member states.

Both sides cite illegal gambling

S&D estimates that the levy could raise between €2bn-€4bn annually, and up to between €14bn-€28bn across the EU’s seven year budget cycle. 

The levy may find a friendly ear in Brussels, where EU authorities are reviewing ways to generate funds for the proposed 2028-2034 Multinational Financial Framework (MFF) – a €2trn prospect.

Sandra Gómez López, Co-Negotiator on Own Resources for the EU Budget in the EU Budget Committee, said: “According to the S&D Group position, an ambitious basket of new genuine own resources is a condition for having an ambitious MFF that can respond to the increased needs of our citizens and business. 

“As already stated in the MFF Interim Report adopted in April 2026, we need sustainable, predictable and resilient revenue streams for the Union budget.”

Negrescu added: “We take up the initiative in times when Europe’s online gambling and betting market continues to expand rapidly, generating tens of billions of euros annually while increasingly operating across borders and benefitting from the single market.

“According to industry estimates, illegal online gambling already represents around 71% of the market in Europe, leading to major losses in public revenue, weaker consumer protection and increased risks linked to money laundering and organised crime.”

The European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA), a trade body for the EU gambling sector, has been critical of the proposal from the outside. Maaten Haijer, Secretary General of the EGBA, described the levy as “unworkable” when it was first touted back in February.

Like other trade bodies, the EGBA has cited the black market as a key risk factor – interestingly sharing a similar sentiment to that expressed by Negrescu above. 

The body argues that taxing gambling could lead to operators taking mitigating measures which would push customers to illegal companies – a similar argument to that expressed by the UK’s Betting and Gaming Council (BGC) during the discussions around taxation last year.

According to a YieldSec report cited by the European Casino Association (ECA), EGBA’s fellow pan-European trade body, the EU black market is costing some €20bn in tax money annually. The EGBA made a similar claim in July last year.

SBC News has reached out to the EGBA for comment on next week’s meeting.