Draft law to increase taxes for online casinos backed by Pashinyan

YEREVAN, February 26. /ARKA/. The bill, which proposes changes to the tax system for online games with winnings and online casinos, but not for betting and bookmakers, has received the support of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and will come into force on April 1. This was announced by the author of the bill, MP Hayk Sargsyan from the pro-government “Civil Contract” faction, during a meeting of the parliamentary committee on economic issues held on Wednesday.

The bill was submitted and approved by the committee in early February. At that time, Sargsyan reported that the turnover in this sector had increased from 14 billion drams in 2010 to 6.3 trillion drams in 2023. He also noted that taxes and duties paid had grown from 1 billion drams to just 33 billion drams. Sargsyan had proposed introducing a 10% turnover tax in addition to the existing taxes and state duties. However, the parliament later decided to postpone the adoption of this project.

Today, Sargsyan proposed including the bill on the agenda for the next National Assembly session under a special procedure, so that the bill could be considered in the first and second readings within 24 hours. The deputies approved this proposal.