Finance Committee member Aivar Kokk (Isamaa) was the first to inform ERR of the error in the law, noting that the issue had also come up in committee discussions. "Games of chance and remote gambling were left out of this year's taxation, meaning online casino games are not being taxed in 2026," said Kokk.

The mistake lies in a clause amending the Gambling Tax Act, which now specifies that the tax rate is 5.5 percent of the amount from "skill games" as defined in Section 1, Subsection 1, Clause 5 of the law.

According to Kokk, the problem is the inclusion of the term "skill games." There would have been no issue, he said, if the term "games of chance" had also been included.

The Riigikogu passed the bill amending the Gambling Tax Act on December 3 last year and the president promulgated it on December 18.

The bill's goal was to gradually lower the gambling tax rate from 6 to 4 percent by half a percentage point annually. For this year, the rate was supposed to drop to 5.5 percent.

Kokk added that the provisions for subsequent years were correctly drafted, but the current error could result in a significant financial loss for the state.

Finance Committee chair Annely Akkermann (Reform) told ERR the error would be corrected within a month.

"This mistake is indeed in the Gambling Tax Act and we will fix it," Akkermann said.

She added that in her 12 years in the Riigikogu, this is the first such clerical error in one of her own bills. "No one noticed it. I personally read through the bill. Everyone read it — lawyers at the Ministry of Finance, our committee staff, members of parliament, all the way up to the president," she said.

Akkermann explained that there are two options for correcting the error, both of which require reprocessing the law. "One option is to attach the fix as an amendment to another bill. The other is to submit a separate bill to remove the word 'skill games' from the text," she said.

"We're more likely to go with the fastest option and bundle it with another bill," she added.

Akkermann said swift action should help prevent serious financial damage from the lack of taxation. "Absolutely. A legal counsel from a gambling operator wrote to us and clearly stated that the intent of the legislature is obvious — no one expected that games of chance would be untaxed. It's universally understood to be a clerical error," she said.

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