Governments on both sides of the Atlantic are setting their sights on the iGaming industry as solutions to revenue shortfalls – a decision insiders argue could damage regulation prospects as well as the long-term sustainability of regulated markets.

A newly proposed EU-wide gambling levy seeks to streamline iGaming taxation throughout the EU.

Meanwhile in Latin America, Colombia has moved ahead with enforcement of their new 16% deposit tax.

Speaking on the iGaming Daily podcast, Media Manager Fernando Noodt is joined by SBC Editor-at-Large Ted Menmuir and SBC Noticias Editor Lucia Gando to explore the effects these proposed, and active, policies could have on the global industry.

A European Levy Takes Shape

Forty members of the European Parliament have backed a working proposal submitted by Romanian representative Victor Negrescu calling for a common 1% tax on all iGaming income across EU-licensed operators.

The proposal targets approximately €4bn annually – or €28bn over the four-year European budget cycle – to fund educational programmes, labour reskilling initiatives and national problem gambling treatment campaigns.

However, no formal mechanism or timeline for the proposed scheme exists.

Gambling across the EU is treated as a matter of state autonomy with no unified framework currently in place that would make adoption of a federal levy easily applicable.

SBC’s Ted Menmuir warns supporters of the scheme that even a positive response from the European Commission could be rejected by individual member states, “We don’t even know as yet what considerations would factor into the EC’s approach to how you design, or how you create the boundaries of a project for applying a specific tax on gambling”

Structurally, any EU-wide levy would be complex.

Markets like Germany and Spain operate fragmented regulatory regimes, with differences across land-based and online channels making any unified mechanism difficult to design.

Existing social welfare programs that push tax revenue from national lotteries further complicates things as a federal levy could cannibalise funding streams that already serve a similar stated purpose.

Colombia goes further

While Europe debates hypotheticals, Colombia is busy taking action

Following failed attempts to introduce a 19% VAT on iGaming operations, the government has now approved two new decrees establishing a 16% tax on player deposits.

This mechanism is notably different from standard operator revenue taxes.

Players are taxed on funds deposited, not bets placed or winnings generated, something Lucia Gando believes will alter how players make bets moving forward.

“They are going to deposit smaller amounts more often. […] Or they might feel that they have less money to play with. So the bets will be smaller and [players] go to the illegal market as we always warn” Gando added.

Colombia, which was once the first market in the region to establish a functioning online licensing regime, now faces its third consecutive year of tax disputes with no resolution in sight.

International operators have already flagged the market as moving from profit-positive to profit-negative within just six months last year.

Lando puts it flatly, “Colombia is losing its credibility.”

For operators in both markets, the message remains the same.

The regulatory risk premium in Latin America, and potentially Europe, is rising as the window for stable, growth-oriented engagement narrows with every legislative cycle.