Basque Government forecasts €58.57m in gambling revenue for 2027

The Basque Government has published the documentation for its 2027 draft general budget, which forecasts €58.57m in revenue from gambling, according to the published budget figures. The total combines the gambling duties, the tax on gambling activities and the regional surcharge on the gambling duty. The draft will now go through the Basque Parliament.

The forecast is 4.3% above the initial 2026 budget, which stood at €56.15m. It represents around 0.26% of the €22,681.7m the Basque Country expects to collect in agreed taxes. The overall draft budget totals €17,628.99m.

The tax on gambling activities, which mainly covers online gambling and betting, is budgeted at €10.5m, against €8.52m in 2026, an increase of 23.3%. The 2026 closing forecast was already €10.02m, above the budgeted figure. By territory, Bizkaia accounts for €5.2m, Gipuzkoa €3.5m and Álava €1.8m.

Gambling duties total €44.17m, 1% more than the €43.74m budgeted for 2026 and 0.2% more than the year's closing forecast of €44.06m. Machines remain the largest part at €32.95m, 0.5% above the €32.80m budgeted for 2026, while the 2026 closing forecast of €31.53m is below what was expected this year. Casinos and other games rise from €7.15m to €7.20m, up 0.7%.

For bingo, €4.01m is budgeted for 2027, 6.1% more than the €3.78m of 2026. The closing forecast for this year puts bingo revenue at €5.67m, 50% above the budgeted figure, so the document shows a 29.3% fall between the estimated 2026 close and the 2027 figure. The documentation does not explain that difference.

Bizkaia accounts for more than half of the gambling duties at €25.3m, followed by Gipuzkoa with €12.7m and Álava with €6.17m. Álava records the largest rise against 2026, at 5.7%. The surcharge on the gambling duty, which the Basque Government receives directly, stays at €3.9m. The draft also sets aside €390,000 as an expandable credit to pay the provincial councils for managing bingo and that surcharge.

In the Basque Country the three provincial councils — Álava, Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa — collect the agreed gambling taxes under the Economic Agreement, and the Basque Government includes them in its revenue forecast. On the spending side, the Gambling and Spectacles programme of the Security Department, on which the Directorate of Gambling and Spectacles depends, will have €2.5m, 1.7% more than in 2026. Of that, €2.07m is staff costs and €200,000 is current transfers.

The Economic and Financial Report accompanying the draft lists gambling activities among the figures with the most dynamic performance in collection up to August 2026. The Basque accounts arrive while the sector awaits the review of gambling planning announced by Nerea Aldai, and while venues seek adjustments of the kind proposed by José Félix Sanz.