Estonia’s decision to gradually roll out a significant tax cut for its gambling sector has allowed it to proclaim itself as the next big iGaming hub in Europe, planning to go toe-to-toe with the likes of Malta and Gibraltar.
However, targeting 4% of GGR in taxes by January 2029, while certain to get the attention of many international operators yet to consider Estonia as a viable investment, might be eclipsed by stricter advertising rules further down the line.
If an increase in marketing restrictions is eventually introduced, it would be the current licensed operators that the market will need to thank for that, as it turns out.
Close to half of gambling ads in Estonia non-compliant
Speaking to national public broadcaster ERR, Diana Lints, Head of Services Supervision Office at the Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority (TTJA), brought the attention to a previous TTJA-commissioned supervisory project that painted a less-than-flattering picture of the advertising compliance within the licensed gambling market.
In 2025, the project inspected a total of 230 gambling advertisements from regulated operators, of which 104 were found to be in breach of marketing regulations. In other words, 45% of the inspected ads were directly violating Estonia’s Advertising Act – a result far from favourable.
Lints pointed out that the breaches varied considerably, spanning from misleading adverts, warning texts that fall short of what is required under current legislation, and use of marketing that is outright prohibited.
While there were no specific examples given of operators breaching the rules, Estonia’s Advertising Act clearly outlines that gambling advertisements should not encourage people to gamble and should not promise wealth.
The Act also states that problem gambling messages should be prominent across any marketing campaign, and the use of influencers should preferably be avoided.
It is safe to assume that the constituted breaches had partially or in large crossed the outlined above.
Stricter marketing rulebook not ruled out yet
In light of the project’s findings, Estonia is now considering an update to its Advertising Act to ensure better compliance among gambling firms, as confirmed for ERR by Mari-Liis Aas, Consumer Protection Adviser at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications.
“Since the entire process is still at a very early stage, it is unfortunately not yet possible to say whether or to what extent gambling advertising regulation will be changed in the future.”
It is a given that the government will be monitoring whether the compliance standards improve within the licensed gambling market very closely.
However, it is entirely up to the operators themselves to fully comprehend that whether Estonia will become the next big iGaming hub in Europe depends largely on them.
