Four companies have made donations directly to the Cultural Endowment, and four companies have made donations to the Ministry of Finance's account. In total, approximately 497,000 euros have been donated. When income tax is added, the total amount collected is about 637,000 euros.
Although eight companies made donations, there are 41 online gambling organizers in Estonia. Of these, 14 belong to the Estonian Gambling Organizers Association.
If the law had been in effect, the state could have earned nearly two million euros. Currently, a little over a quarter of that amount has been donated. Evelyn Liivamägi, Deputy Chancellor of the Ministry of Finance, said she did not expect donations to be as much as taxes.
Which companies made donations, Liivamägi initially did not disclose. The shortfall caused by the error will be clarified at the end of the year.
The Gambling Organizers Association has stated that all its members want to make donations, but this has not yet happened. They still have time to make donations.
The shortfall due to the absence of taxes will be clarified by the end of the year, according to Liivamägi. If the plans of the proponents of reducing online gambling tax work, the state should receive more money than forecasted.
The contributions to the Cultural Endowment from gambling tax revenues will also be clarified at the end of the year. If the Cultural Endowment's funds are smaller, the government will cover the difference.
The final amount of donations will be clarified by the end of March. From March onwards, online gambling organizers will pay tax at a rate of 5.5%. Therefore, donations are also expected from them by mid-March for tax-free February.
Information on which online gambling tax organizers have made donations and which have not is not precisely known even to Tõnis Rüütli, director of the Estonian Gambling Organizers Association.
The draft amendment to the Gambling Tax Act was approved by the Riigikogu in December 2025. At the beginning of January, it turned out that there was a typo in it, which resulted in online gambling tax being zero. In February, the law was successfully amended.
In the state budget, the Ministry of Finance assumed that this year's online gambling tax revenue could be 27 million euros. In the first few months, the revenue could have been four million euros, according to the ministry's estimate, if there had been no error in the law.