EMTA (Estonia) gambling licence: what it covers and what it means for players

For players in Great BritainAn Estonian licence only covers gambling offered in Estonia. Under the Gambling Act 2005, s.33 read with s.36(3) and (3A) (as amended by the Gambling (Licensing and Advertising) Act 2014), providing remote gambling facilities that are used in Great Britain without a Gambling Commission operating licence is an offence, and s.330 makes advertising unlawful gambling an offence. An Estonian licence therefore does not allow anyone to offer gambling to people in Great Britain. How to check a site.

Licence types

Activity licence (tegevusluba), valid indefinitely, required separately for each type: games of chance (including poker tournaments), toto (sports and other betting) and games of skill
Operating permit (korraldusluba) for each gaming location, ship, or for remote (online) gambling; only available to holders of the matching activity licence (except lotteries)
Lotteries need only an operating permit; commercial lotteries need only a notice of economic activities
Minimum share capital: EUR 1,000,000 (games of chance), EUR 130,000 (toto), EUR 25,000 (games of skill); applicant must be a public or private limited company registered in Estonia or the EU, with gambling as its only activity
State fee for an activity licence: EUR 47,940 (games of chance), EUR 31,960 (toto), EUR 3,200 (games of skill)

What players get

National self-restriction list held by EMTA: covers games of chance (casino games, poker, tournaments), toto (sports betting) and classical lotteries, but not instant scratch lotteries; licensed operators must refuse anyone on it
A restriction is chosen for 6 to 36 months, cannot be cancelled early, and does not lapse automatically: the person must apply to be removed after the term; it takes effect by the next day when set through the e-MTA portal
Only the person themselves can apply; family members cannot set a restriction for someone else
EMTA blocks access to websites of gambling operators that serve Estonia without Estonian licences and permits
An activity licence from another EEA country does not give the right to offer gambling in Estonia
Free help is available from gambling-addiction consultation centres, signposted by EMTA

How to check a licence

EMTA publishes a 'List of legal gambling operators' by gambling type, with each operator's brands and websites and a link to its entry in the Register of Economic Activities (MTR, https://mtr.ttja.ee/): https://emta.ee/en/business-client/registration-business/gambling-operators/list-legal-gambling-operators. EMTA also publishes the domains it has blocked as unlicensed (PDF and CSV).

Recent changes

2025-01: Remote gambling tax rate for 2025 listed by EMTA as 6% of bets less prizes
2026-01: EMTA lists a 5.5% rate for 2026 for remote games of skill, toto and poker tournaments (down from 6% in 2025)
2025-05: Public broadcaster ERR reported about 19,000 people on the self-restriction list, up nearly 36% in five years (secondary)

Context

Estonia's regulator is the national tax and customs authority rather than a dedicated gambling regulator; it handles licensing, tax and blocking of unlicensed sites

EMTA says it holds no information on the reliability of unauthorised gambling websites and cannot help players who have problems with them

EMTA states that licences are not harmonised across the EU, so an Estonian licence works only for Estonia and vice versa

Not yet verified

Text of the Gambling Act itself was not read: Riigi Teataja only serves it through JavaScript, and the English version EMTA links to was in force 1 Jan 2021 to 30 Aug 2025, so a later amendment exists whose content was not checked
Date the regime began (Gambling Act adoption and start of remote licensing) not sourced, so 'established' is null
EMTA's 2026 rate list does not separately mention remote games of chance (casino); whether the 5.5% rate also applies to them was not confirmed
Exact publication date of the ERR article (about May 2025) not confirmed
Any plan to let family members request restrictions was reported in trade press but not confirmed from an official source, so it is left out

We could not confirm these from a primary source, so we have not stated them as fact.