Gambling licence in Bulgaria is the best and most cost effective solution in the whole EU. Especially when it comes to online gambling which could in fact be managed from abroad and not necessarily from Bulgaria where the licence has been obtained. Bulgarian Gambling Law requires that the owner of the company that will provide online gambling to be either a Bulgarian or an EU national. The same requirement is if the shareholder is a legal entity. If a non-EU company plans to obtain such licence, it should incorporate another EU company first and then the new entity can be the shareholder of the Bulgarian company that will organize the online gambling.

The first major requirement is a minimum amount of the investment. There are two applicable components – BGN 600 000 (a little more than EUR 300 000) is the amount which must be invested in hardware, software, etc. plus BGN 1 000 000 free capital for the purpose of paying clients, i.e. real money available ‘at hand’. The documents proving that the company has the required funds (BGN 1 600 000 BGN) are shown together with the application for the licence. The origin of all funds must be proved as the Commission explicitly checks for this.

Another mandatory requirement concerns the online communication equipment and respectively the central computer system. The rule is that they must be physically located on the territory of Bulgaria. However, they can be managed or maintained from a distance, i.e. even though in Bulgaria, servers and other equipment can be run from abroad. The central computer system of the online casino must be connected to the Bulgarian National Revenue Agency for real time transfer of information directly to the National Revenue Agency.  Every transaction is online registered in the Agency’s system. And finally the gaming software should be approved by the Bulgarian State Commission on Gambling

When it comes to payment applicants should bear in mind that licensed companies organizing online gambling must open a special bank account for depositing stakes and paying out winnings with an EU or a Swiss licensed bank operating in Bulgaria.

The time frame for obtaining an online gambling licence is 2 months from the date on which all required documents have been filed with the Commission. If there are any discrepancies or if the Commission requires more documents, then the applicant has another month. The fees for reviewing the applicant’s documents are BGN 40 000 for sporting events and horse/dog racing or BGN 70 000 for online poker and casino. A licence can be issued for 5 or 100 years and in order to be maintained the company organizing the online gambling should annually pay BGN 100 000 plus 20% on the net profit.