Gambling and Betting in Georgia: The Legal Framework, Permits and Taxes
Which gambling activities Georgia regulates, which permit each one needs, what the permit fees and gambling taxes look like, the advertising and responsible-gaming rules, the compliance obligations, and what an operator must have in place before applying.
Georgia regulates gambling through a permit system rather than a general licence. The governing act is the Law of Georgia on Organizing Lotteries, Games of Chance and Prizes, supported by the Law of Georgia on Licences and Permits and by orders of the Ministry of Finance and the LEPL Revenue Service, which issues and supervises the permits. If you intend to operate any form of gambling from or in Georgia, the first question is never the company - it is which permit category your product falls into.
Organising a game of chance, a prize game or a lottery in Georgia requires a permit issued in accordance with the law, and each form of activity is authorised under its own permit category.
A permit is granted to an applicant that satisfies the conditions established for the relevant permit category, and the permit holder must observe those conditions on a continuing basis while the permit is held.
Permit first, product second. A Georgian LLC can be registered in a day; a gambling permit is a separate, conditional authorization with its own fees, systems and reporting. Building the product before confirming the permit route is the most expensive mistake operators make.
What counts as gambling under Georgian law
The Law on Organizing Lotteries, Games of Chance and Prizes divides regulated activity into categories, each with its own permit. In outline these are:
- Casino (gaming table) activity - roulette, card and dice games organised at gaming tables.
- Gaming machine salons - slot and other automated gaming machines in a licensed venue.
- Betting (totalizator and bookmaking) - fixed-odds and pool betting on sports and other events.
- Lotteries - state and organised lotteries, with their own regime and operator conditions.
- Systemic-electronic games - the category that captures online and remote play, and the one most foreign operators are actually asking about.
- Games of skill and prize games organised for commercial promotion, which are treated separately from games of chance.
The distinction that matters commercially is between land-based activity, which is tied to an approved venue and municipality, and systemic-electronic organisation, which is the online layer. In practice an operator wanting to accept online play must hold the underlying gambling permit and, in addition, the permit for organising the activity in systemic-electronic form.
| Category | What it covers | Venue required | Online play |
|---|---|---|---|
| Casino | Roulette, card and dice games at gaming tables | Yes, approved venue and municipality | Only with a systemic-electronic permit in addition |
| Gaming machine salon | Slots and other automated machines | Yes | Only with a systemic-electronic permit in addition |
| Betting | Fixed-odds and pool betting on events | Yes for land-based outlets | Only with a systemic-electronic permit in addition |
| Systemic-electronic | The online and remote layer over the base activity | No | This is the online permit |
| Lottery | State and organised lotteries | Depends on the model | Separate regime and operator conditions |
Who may hold a permit
A permit is issued to a legal entity, not to an individual, and the entity must be able to demonstrate the financial and organisational capacity to run the activity. Applicants are typically expected to show:
An online casino operator with no Georgian presence
A founder in Dubai plans an online casino for players in several markets, and asks for "the Georgian licence". There is no company yet, the platform is half built, and the funding came from the sale of a previous business.
- 1Establish the category: the product needs the base gambling permit and, because play is remote, the systemic-electronic permit as well. One permit is not enough.
- 2Incorporate a Georgian LLC, capitalise it, and document the source of funds with the sale agreement and bank statements - asserting it is not enough.
- 3Build the compliance pack: AML/CFT policy adapted to Georgian requirements, KYC procedures, responsible gambling policy, appointed officers.
- 4Prepare the technical file: platform description, RNG and gaming-system certification, player-account and transaction logging.
- 5File with the Revenue Service, pay the permit fee, and answer information requests inside the statutory deadlines.
The realistic path is a scoping review first, then a filing built on evidence. The two things that most often stop this file are unevidenced source of funds and a technical description written in marketing language.
Illustrative. Every file turns on its own facts and on the fee schedule in force at the time.
- A Georgian legal entity - in practice an LLC (შპს) or JSC - registered with the Public Registry.
- Identified owners and ultimate beneficial owners, with clean criminal and regulatory records; the regulator will look through nominee structures.
- Proof of the source of the funds used to capitalise the business.
- A described technical platform: gaming system, random number generation where relevant, player accounts, transaction logging and data retention.
- Player-protection and anti-money-laundering procedures, including age verification, self-exclusion and reporting.
- For land-based activity, a specific venue that meets the conditions of the permit category and the municipality's rules.
AML/CFT obligations
Gambling operators are supervised entities for anti-money-laundering purposes. In practice this means the compliance pack is not a formality but a live obligation under the Law of Georgia on Facilitating the Prevention of Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism, which as a rule requires operators to identify and verify players, monitor transactions, keep records, appoint a responsible officer, and report suspicious activity to the Financial Monitoring Service. A policy copied from another jurisdiction and never adapted to Georgian requirements is a common reason files stall.
Organisers of gambling and games of chance are among the persons required to apply customer due diligence, monitor transactions, retain records and report suspicious transactions to the Financial Monitoring Service.
Permit fees and gambling taxes
Two different payments are commonly confused. The permit fee is what you pay to obtain and hold the permit; the gambling tax is what you pay on the activity itself. Both are set by legislation and change periodically, and land-based fees vary significantly by category and by municipality - fees in a resort or free-tourism zone can differ sharply from those in Tbilisi.
Per table
Land-based permit fee basis
Charged per gaming table or machine, quarterly
Category
Gambling tax base
Turnover or GGR concepts, depending on the category
15%
Corporate income tax
On distributed profit, as for any Georgian company
- Permit fees are payable per permit and, for land-based activity, are commonly charged per gaming table or per machine, on a quarterly basis.
- Gambling tax is charged on the activity under the Tax Code of Georgia, with the base depending on the category - per table or machine for land-based operations, and on turnover or gross gaming revenue concepts for other categories.
- Withholding on player winnings and reporting duties apply in defined cases.
- Corporate income tax under the Estonian model still applies to the company, and VAT treatment must be checked for each revenue stream.
Do not budget from a blog post - including this one. Gambling fee schedules and tax rates in Georgia have been amended repeatedly in recent years. Before any financial model, get the current figures confirmed in writing against the Tax Code and the applicable Ministry of Finance orders.
The application in practice
- Confirm the category. Establish precisely which permit or permits the product needs, and whether a systemic-electronic permit is required in addition to the base permit.
- Incorporate and capitalise. Register the Georgian company, open banking, and document the source of funds.
- Prepare the compliance pack. AML/CFT policy, KYC procedures, responsible gambling policy, data protection and retention, complaint handling, and the appointment of responsible officers.
- Prepare the technical file. Platform description, certification of the gaming system where required, integration with any reporting interface the regulator specifies.
- Secure the venue, for land-based categories, and confirm municipal conditions.
- File with the Revenue Service, pay the permit fee, and respond to information requests within the statutory deadlines.
- Go live under supervision. Reporting, tax filings and permit-fee instalments begin immediately and never stop while the permit is held.
Advertising and marketing restrictions
Georgia has tightened gambling advertising substantially. Restrictions reach mass advertising, sponsorship and promotion aimed at the domestic market, and there are age-based restrictions on participation, together with a register of persons restricted from gambling. An operator building a marketing plan for the Georgian market should treat advertising as a legal workstream in its own right, not a marketing decision.
Ongoing compliance once the permit is held
- Periodic permit-fee instalments, commonly quarterly for land-based categories.
- Gambling tax and corporate income tax filings on their statutory cycles.
- Continuing AML/CFT monitoring, record-keeping and suspicious-transaction reporting.
- Maintaining responsible-gaming controls, age verification and the self-exclusion register.
- Keeping ownership, venue and technical details current with the regulator, since the permit rests on them.
Common reasons applications fail
The permit that was granted and then surrendered
An operator obtains a Georgian permit, launches, and discovers within a year that the economics do not work.
- 1The permit fee and the tax obligations attach to the permitted activity for as long as the permit is held, whether or not the operation is trading.
- 2Payment providers and aggregators have onboarded on the basis of an active, supervised licence, and their agreements assume it continues.
- 3Surrendering the permit is itself a regulated process with notice requirements, player-fund obligations and reporting to close out.
- 4Walking away without doing it properly leaves obligations attached to the entity and to the individuals behind it.
A gambling permit is easier to obtain than to exit, and the exit is where operators who treated the licence as a marketing asset discover it was a continuing legal relationship.
Illustrative. Surrender and suspension procedures are set by the governing law and by permit conditions.
- Ownership that cannot be traced to identifiable individuals.
- Source of funds that is asserted rather than evidenced.
- A technical platform described in marketing language instead of technical detail.
- AML and responsible-gaming policies copied from another jurisdiction and never adapted to Georgian requirements.
- Applying for the wrong category, or assuming one permit covers both land-based and online activity.
How Trustlex works on gambling files
We do not quote a gambling permit as a fixed price, and we say so before taking any money. The first step is always a scoping review: the product, the markets, the ownership and the funding, against the current permit categories and fee schedule. That review produces a written route, a realistic timeline, and a fee split between government charges and professional work. Only then does the engagement begin.