Bulgarians lose nearly €1 billion a year to gambling

Тurnover from online gambling alone in Bulgaria rose to an alarming nearly BGN 67 billion in 2025 from BGN 44 billion in 2023.

The net revenues of casinos and betting operators exceed BGN 1.6 billion a year, while losses incurred by Bulgarian citizens at casinos and betting websites are estimated at nearly €1 billion annually.

Although the law categorically prohibits gambling by anyone under the age of 18, children are widely placing bets through fake accounts, using the personal or bank cards of their parents and older friends.

Aggressive advertising is further contributing to the popularity of gambling among teenagers, BGNES writes in an analytical report.

Bulgarian cabinet to criminalise customs violations, tighten control on gambling

We Continue the Change proposes total ban on gambling advertising

As of the beginning of 2025, nearly 43,000 Bulgarian citizens were registered in the Register of Vulnerable Persons maintained by the National Revenue Agency after voluntarily requesting that they be barred from accessing casinos and betting websites. Since the register was reinstated in December 2022, more than 53,000 Bulgarians have been entered in it, BGNES reports.

Under amendments to the Gambling Act adopted in 2024, the period after which a person can request to be removed from the register was reduced from two years to 30 days. In just a few months, between May 2024 and the beginning of 2025, more than 10,000 people were removed from the list and regained access to gambling, often driven by their own addiction.

Edited by Ivo Ivanov