Costly typo
The Parliament of Estonia’s Chancellery has axed “a long-serving adviser” for a typo in the European country’s gambling tax act.
chose not to disclose her name as she is “not a public figure”
Estonia’s public broadcaster ERR said it knew the name of the individual fired for the clerical error in the December Gambling Tax Act, but chose not to disclose her name as she is “not a public figure.”
ERR stated on Friday that the drafting mistake was corrected in a revised version of the act passed in haste by lawmakers this month.
The error by the woman, who had worked in the Chancellery for more than 30 years, was a national scandal and has caused major political in-fighting. Estonia’s Finance Committee member Aivar Kokk claimed the woman fired by the Chancellery was “a scapegoat” and that in his 15 years in parliament, he does “not recall anything so disgraceful.”
“First, a Ministry of Finance official was blamed, then all members of the Riigikogu collectively,” Kokk claimed.
Claims and counter claims
Chancellery Director Antero Habicht rejected the claims of political bias, stating the woman’s dismissal was caused by the typo and other related circumstances “as a result of the disciplinary proceedings.”
The Chancellery directive stated that the woman discovered her error on January 5 but did not immediately inform her superiors, who learned of the mistake a week later in an ERR news scoop.
Adding further embarrassment to Estonia’s government was a news report that came after the scandal broke, in which the woman told Eesti Ekspress that she had warned the Chancellery in November about needing more time to prepare the online casino bill.
A law is not a poem or a newspaper article”
“A law is not a poem or a newspaper article, where it does not matter if a word is wrong,” the axed adviser stated. “Time must be given for a law to be completed and mature. Otherwise, the potential damage can be very large.”
Local media claim that criticizing the Chancellery in the press contributed to the woman’s dismissal. Not helping matters was the Chancellery Finance Committee Chair Annely Akkermann’s admission that the woman “did indeed complain that too many things were coming in and they could not keep up or go into sufficient depth.”
Shaky start
For a country that was launching the new Gambling Act in an attempt to establish Estonia as an iGaming hub to rival Malta and Gibraltar, it couldn’t have gotten off to a worse start.
Much has been made of Estonia’s gradual lowering of its 6% gambling tax by 0.5% each year, aiming to hit 4% in 2029 and undercut Malta’s 5% tax. The rate for 2026 was meant to be 5.5% but, thanks to the typo, the act referred only to “skill games” as taxable, effectively leaving online gambling tax free.
The Keystone Cops start to the year suggests estimations that Estonia’s remote gambling tax will generate around €27m ($31m) in 2026 might be off the mark.
