Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has called for an EU-level gambling tax to be seriously considered as member states negotiate the bloc’s 2028-2034 budget. Speaking after a Sept. 10 meeting of Visegrad Group leaders in Bratislava, Tusk argued that higher EU spending should not be financed primarily through additional costs for workers and households, and pointed to gambling, cryptocurrencies, and large digital companies as potential sources of new revenue.
Tusk specifically referenced proposals already raised in the European Parliament, saying he wanted its ideas on taxing gambling and cryptocurrencies to receive serious consideration. The comments do not amount to a Polish legislative proposal or an agreed EU tax, but they give the gambling levy support from the head of government of one of the bloc’s largest member states while negotiations over the next Multiannual Financial Framework continue.
The European Parliament included an online gambling and betting levy among several alternative revenue sources in its April position on the 2028-2034 budget. MEPs said alternatives should be considered if member states reject parts of the European Commission’s own revenue package, with other options including a digital services levy and a tax on crypto-asset capital gains. Parliament wants new EU revenue sources to generate around €60 billion annually across the wider budget package.
A group of MEPs had already asked the Commission in March to assess the legal basis and feasibility of a harmonized levy on online gambling and betting. Parliamentary research cited in that request estimated that such a charge could raise between €2 billion and €4 billion per year, or close to €28 billion across the full seven-year budget cycle. No tax rate, tax base, collection system, or list of operators that would fall within its scope has been agreed.
The European Commission’s current budget proposal does not include an online gambling levy. Its formal package of new own resources instead covers revenue streams linked to the EU Emissions Trading System, the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism, electronic waste, tobacco excise duties, and a new contribution from large companies. The proposed 2028-2034 budget totals close to €2 trillion.
The European Gaming and Betting Association opposed the gambling levy after it appeared in Parliament’s budget discussions in April. EGBA argued that licensed operators already pay gambling taxes at national level and that adding an EU charge could make regulated companies less competitive against illegal operators. The trade group also warned that weaker channelization could reduce the tax revenue collected by individual member states.
Any new EU own resource would require unanimous approval from all 27 member states in the Council after consultation with the European Parliament. Every member state would then have to approve the decision under its own constitutional procedures, giving national governments the ability to block the measure before it takes effect. A gambling levy would also have to account for the widely different licensing and taxation systems already used across Europe.
Poland already taxes gambling through its national system, meaning an EU levy would potentially sit alongside existing domestic obligations unless lawmakers designed another mechanism. The unresolved questions include whether any charge would be based on gross gaming revenue, turnover, profit, or another measure, and how an EU-wide system would handle operators serving several regulated markets at once.
EU institutions are still negotiating both spending priorities and revenue sources for the 2028-2034 budget, which is due to take effect on Jan. 1, 2028. Tusk’s comments put Poland behind further discussion of the gambling proposal, but the levy remains outside the Commission’s current package and would still need unanimous support from member states before becoming part of the EU’s funding system.