News

Monday, 15 March 2010 06:36

With the recent rise in tax revenue collected by the Bulgarian government thanks to its legalisation of online gambling, the industry looks towards tourism as a way to expand.

Bulgaria is not exactly a world power in terms of its gambling industry, but its recent history is rather more surprising than the average man on the street in another country would give it credit for. Until 1993, all forms of gambling were strictly forbidden by the country's law, yet despite this stern legal stance, the country had a thriving underground gambling industry that was controlled by organised crime mafias.

The government were well aware of what was going on under their noses, but instead of trying to do as the certain governments have done and spending vast resources trying to fight it, they decided to take full advantage of what proved to be a very lucrative situation. The government realised that the demand for gambling and its associated facilities was enormous and set about changing the law to allow gambling under license, for which it creamed off a percentage in taxation. Needless to say, licenses were given out liberally.

With the relatively recent astronomical rise in online gambling, the Bulgarian government realised that a huge amount of potential tax revenue was also slipping through their fingers, so in 2008 they legalised online gambling too and set about taking a 10 percent flat rate in taxation from all licensed online casino operators based in the country.

In spite of the high rate charged by the government for licensing and its hefty rate of tax imposed on those licensed operators, both the land based and online gambling institutions attract a high number of clients. The country's gambling industry is convinced it could be attracting far more people than it presently does. It is currently looking at ways of increasing its business by raising the marketing awareness if Bulgaria as a hotspot for tourism. To that end, the Bulgarian Gaming Industry Manufacturers and Operators Trade Association are actively seeking a draft to cover a long-term industry development plan.

While there is some gambling tourism, it has not yet grown in popularity in Bulgaria. This is where industry leaders claim there are great opportunities for growth by attracting patrons from neighbouring Turkey where Internet gambling is still illegal. However, there is still a long road ahead of them before traffic from this area starts to pick up.