Where to go in the EU to bet on sports legally with low taxes?

**Ruifgalmeida** · 08-23-21, 07:21 PM

Living with less that 1k probably some place like Bulgaria, don't know much about their sports betting situation

**Optional** · 08-24-21, 06:17 AM

Does that mean 1k euro per month?

**brknmg** · 08-25-21, 03:34 AM

Yes, 1k euro/month. That is not a big thing in ~eastern europe. I think it's ok in Slovakia, Czech Republic, Croatia, Poland, Hungary, and the balkans. I like Slovakia, but don't know about the tax laws. Anybody from Slovakia?

**Risto234** · 08-25-21, 04:32 AM

Originally posted by brknmg

In my country the tax on sports gambling is unbelievably high (you have absolutely no chance to play, because the government wants you to play only at their low effort site).
Do you know a country where the tax on gambling is low, and the living is under 1k euro, or not much higher?
Slovakia, Croatia, or Czech Republic maybe?
I'm planning to play at sportmarket.com
I know the living is much higher in Austria and Slovenia, but what is the law there? Is gambling tax-free?

Dont know what your country is but for example here in Estonia all gambling wins are tax-free.

**Diesel79** · 08-25-21, 04:53 AM

Yeah, but only from government licenced books. If you win something big from Pinny for example, you are required to pay tax

**Camma23** · 08-25-21, 07:19 AM

Where are you from? Austria was one of best options but read just before on another forum that they are changing gambling laws (probably since january 2022). Infact an austrian user reported that Pinny is shutting down all austrian accounts. Probably this move will affect also asian brokers business.

There was another interesting 3d in past months about best country where living from gambling but, except Austria, we didn't find a clear solution to the question

**Camma23** · 08-25-21, 07:20 AM

Originally posted by Diesel79

Yeah, but only from government licenced books. If you win something big from Pinny for example, you are required to pay tax

referring to Estonia situation?

**Diesel79** · 08-25-21, 10:40 AM

Originally posted by Camma23

referring to Estonia situation?

Yes

**Risto234** · 08-25-21, 11:11 AM

Originally posted by Diesel79

Yeah, but only from government licenced books. If you win something big from Pinny for example, you are required to pay tax

This ^ should apply to every site. Even to those not having license here.
For example 888 is one of them and there only real problem (when winning big) is snail pace withdrawal speed but this is basically problem for all the nations playing in that site ...

E: Googled something and it seems you may easily be right ...
But still using whatever e-wallet should help in that case with withdrawals (instead of using your bank account)

**cristianbet** · 08-26-21, 03:21 AM

well in Romania the living cost is pretty low but you are allowed only to play at the "licensed" bookmakers and you pay 1% of your withdrawal (if <13500 €)

**cristianbet** · 08-26-21, 03:27 AM

and I say "licensed" because any sh|t firm with 20k € can buy a license in RO and that's it. The govt license issuer doesn't help you as a customer if you have any problems with a bookie, they will always hide behind the bookie's TOS and give the side to the bookie, so I think you'll be better of playing elsewhere

**Adham Yassin** · 08-28-21, 05:30 AM

It does not matter if countries like Austria, Belgium, Monaco, Canada ..etc are totally legal and tax free. The cost of living in such countries is very high.

Ummm to live well under 1000 euro per month! Then I think EU countries like Romania, Bulgaria, Malta, Croatia, Cyprus are the best choices to consider. (Maybe Hungary as well)

Poland and Czech Republic are among the blacklist of Pinnacle and i think, they have very high taxes of sport betting. Plus the cost of living is much higher than the countries I mentioned above.

Outside European Union: Moldova, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia (except for Moscow since it is very expensive), Morocco (not an European country but still liberated and near Spain).

If anyone is living or has accurate information about the countries I wrote above, please clarify more and more.

**brknmg** · 09-01-21, 03:05 AM

Still waiting for someone from Slovakia, Malta or Croatia, who earns a living from sport betting, and can tell more about taxing and laws.
I'd like to play at sportmarket.

**Ruifgalmeida** · 09-07-21, 04:48 PM

Originally posted by brknmg

Still waiting for someone from Slovakia, Malta or Croatia, who earns a living from sport betting, and can tell more about taxing and laws.
I'd like to play at sportmarket.

If you are betting on sportmarket you can live anywhere you like, as for the legal terms no Europe zone country will find a broker like sportmarket legal, you would probably had to go around to declare taxes

**brknmg** · 09-10-21, 02:44 AM

I don't care if I have to pay taxes, but I don't want to pay 50% (yes, there are countries where you have to pay this or more - just because they don't want you to play anywhere else than the country's official shitty site).

**maxbett24** · 09-11-21, 04:37 AM

mr

Croatia does not pay off, a lot of things are blocked

**lonnie55** · 09-11-21, 07:20 AM

As far as I know, only UK+Ireland are 100% safe and tax-free. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

In all the other European countries betting is either (partly) illegal or taxable or both.

In my country, Germany, there is neither an explicit law nor a court decision which says betting would be taxable (unlike Poker). Lawyers' opinions differ though. Some say it's not taxable, others say it depends on every single case, especially on factors like betting volume, profits, period of time etc. So it's kind of a grey area here, and I guess the same goes for other places in the EU.

**Camma23** · 09-11-21, 10:21 AM

Originally posted by Ruifgalmeida

If you are betting on sportmarket you can live anywhere you like, as for the legal terms no Europe zone country will find a broker like sportmarket legal, you would probably had to go around to declare taxes

I think you are wrong bcs both UK and Austria gambling law should be ok with brokers' profit. Not 1st hand info but is what I heard from other people from these countries. There you should be permitted to bet where you prefer and transact with your ordinary bank account

**platanito_rules** · 07-08-23, 04:26 PM

Hi mates ,

i am in similar situation as thread opener ... and many before ,,,

anyone with EU options of low or noone taxes and good market offers i.e .. not state oriented ..

thanks in advance ..

**Cicadasinthe** · 07-10-23, 03:14 PM

You’re a bit scant on details. UK and a handful of others are tax free, but unless you’re a fish, you’ll have no outs before long. Limits before 4 figures are standard.

**maxbett24** · 07-11-23, 09:58 AM

maybe you should try with Bosnia and Herzegovina

**maxbett24** · 07-11-23, 09:59 AM

from Croatia were having problems with ip addresses for connection

**cashin81** · 07-11-23, 10:26 AM

Finland? could be wrong

**Diginom** · 07-13-23, 05:25 AM

I think it is easy.
You check the rules on the Pinnacle website, in which EU-Countries Pinnacle is still available.

https://www.pinnacle.com/en/future/termsandconditions/curacao

Pinnacle is of course not the only existing bookmaker, but it is a good indicator, how the state handles the licensing of bookmakers. The list of restricted countries becomes longer and longer, I see, also Bulgaria and Romania are also restricted now. I think, it is only Malta, Latvia and Estonia. As a resident of these 3 EU-countries, you can officially use Pinnacle and maybe Betfair and Matchbook.
That was about legality.
About a taxability - in most countries gambling winnings (Lotto, betting, whatever) are tax-free. Otherwise, one would be able to deduct gambling LOSSES from taxes. Never heard of such a practice - it would have been nonsence and bad deal for the state, because people's gambling losses are much bigger then winnings.

**Diginom** · 07-13-23, 05:36 AM

1.1.3 you are not a resident of the following countries:

the United States of America and its territories;
the French Republic and its territories;
the United Kingdom;
the Netherlands (including Curacao and other countries and territories that form part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands);
Spain;
Germany;
Singapore;
Democratic People's Republic of Korea;
Denmark;
the Philippines;
Syria;
Turkey;
Poland;
Ireland;
Czech Republic;
Sudan;
Australia and its territories;
Italy;
Iran;
Slovenia;
Sweden;
Portugal;
Belgium;
Hungary;
Austria;
Bulgaria;
Greece;
Lithuania;
Romania;
Aruba;
Cyprus;
Province of Ontario;
Serbia;
and any other country which may prohibit the offering of online gambling to its residents or to any person within such country

After checking this list once more, I found, that also Finland, ~~Sweden~~, Slovakia, Luxemburg and Lichtenstein are not in the list. Maybe one can also go to Switzerland, but it is not EU.

P.S. The joke is, Pinnacle is based in Curacao. But you are not allowed to use it even from Curacao! Good example, how absurd all these rules are. Become a digital nomad and circumvent this stuff gracefully.

**povis** · 07-13-23, 08:42 AM

Gambling laws are joke in most European countries, they simply blocking non-local gambling competitors from different jurisdictions, some gambling sites allow existing costumers who signed up long ago to play, others shutting down new gamblers I think pinnacle let you play if your account is old. Safe choice is probably Malta many poker players live and play online there I expect similar situation is with sports betting too.

**Diginom** · 07-13-23, 09:17 AM

I think pinnacle let you play if your account is old

My account was closed in 2016, as Pinnacle retired from the german market.
I agree, actually a Malta-License (Pinnacle and many others possess it) is a EU-wide license according to EU-laws. EU-law has priority against national laws, so theoretically Pinnacle should be in right to act in every EU-country.
But it is taxation model which makes it unprofitable for pinnacle to act for example in Germany. It is a taxation model where bookmaker is paying percent of turnover, not of profit. Such "fair" bookmakers which act like stock exchange can't live with this model. Only bullshit-bookmakers which are banning winning players can live with it.

**KarlReverud** · 07-14-23, 08:14 AM

Originally posted by cashin81

Finland? could be wrong

You're right. Finland is Tax-free for all betting and poker that takes place within the EEA.

**mysticles** · 08-25-23, 07:21 AM

Hes asking country where u can live under 1k€ month. I dont think u can manage that in finland. depending on your lifestyle Malta is doable but i wouldent reccomend it unless you can bring 1,3-1,5 p/m minimum. You will survive with 1k p/m but yeah... shared apartment bedroom = 400€-500 p/m.

If u want to pay taxes etc then in malta think its 5% only tho i dont think anybody will chase you to "pay up" unless your sums are kind a big... Opening bank account in malta would be struggle tho esp if ur planning gambling activity.

**Diginom** · 08-28-23, 04:34 AM

Food is also expensive in Malta. But maltese bank account - I don't know, who needs it. People have Revolut, Wise, Monese and other beautiful fintech products, which provide EU bank accounts (IBAN). Ok, that IBANs are not maltese, but in EU, IBAN-discrimination is prohibited. So you are free to use a belgian IBAN from Wise or a lettish IBAN from Revolut in whole EU incl. Malta.

**bensw** · 08-28-23, 05:07 AM

I agree that it is the cost of living in Finland is high and housing, food and transport prices can be significant.Malta is a more realistic option. The cost of living in Malta is lower than in Finland and you can find not expensive shared apartments . However, as you mentioned, it is necessary to have some financial cushion if you want to live in Malta with a small budget .