Slovakian opposition party pushes for higher fees for land-based gaming venues
The Slovakia Movement has criticised a decision to reduce a proposed fee on slots and tables.
Slovakia.- The Slovakia Movement party, normally presented as business-friendly populists, is pushing for higher fees for land-based gaming venues in the country. The party has criticised government plans to reduce a proposed €9,300 flat fee for each additional device or table by up to 60 per cent.
The government has decided to reduce the proposed fee to €4,400 per slot machine in gaming halls and €6,000 for each video terminal in a physical venue.
MPs Michal Šipoš and Július Jakab continue to push for the €9,300 fee, claiming that the government’s decision to lower the levy will result in €52m in lost revenue for the state. They described the move as a “tax bonus“, arguing that big gambling operators should pay more tax to stop them from “extorting people in Slovakia”, with average player spending said to have increased fourfold.
“People lost one and a half billion in gambling last year. And that’s what makes up profits – profits of extremely wealthy companies that make money from human misery, and here we have a government that cannot tax them,” Jakab said..
Šipoš said Slovakia should look to Austria and Poland as models for their approach to gaming tax. Slovakia currently levies a flat fee per device plus a tax of 27 per cent on GGR. In Poland, there is a 12 per cent tax on stakes for sports betting and a 50 per cent tax on net revenue from slot machines and table games.
There’s also a 10 per cent withholding tax on gambling winnings in Poland. The Ministry of Finance has recently announced plans to increase this tax to 15 per cent from January 2026. The draft proposal would also extend the levy to winnings from international and EU-based gambling platforms, meaning that Polish residents would face tax obligations on cross-border gambling income.
Meanwhile, Slovakia’s Ministry of Finance recently confirmed the appointment of Libuša Baranová as the new director general of Slovakia’s Office for the Regulation of Gambling (ÚRHH). It’s the second change at the top of the gambling regulator this year following the appointment of Jana Mravíková in April.
Mravíková stepped into the position following the departure of Martin Bohoš, who had led the authority since 2019. Finance minister Ladislav Kamenický reassigned Mravíková as director of the Department of Economics and Operations as of October 1.
