Romania’s gambling market looks even less attractive than usual after the government imposed a new 2% tax on gambling turnover.

Shortly before Christmas, Romania’s government issued an emergency ordinance that called for stiff tax hikes on a number of industries, including a ‘greed tax’ on bank assets and a 3% tax on telecom operators’ turnover. The changes officially took effect on January 1.

The ordinance also included plans to impose new taxes on gambling turnover, which the government euphemistically referred to as a ‘gambling participation fee.’ Online operators were to pay a 5% turnover tax, while land-based operators got away with a mere 3% rate. These were to be imposed in addition to the existing 16% tax all operators pay on their gross gambling revenue.

The government released a revised ordinance on December 29 that somewhat softened this blow by reducing the gambling turnover tax to 2%. But the government will reportedly apply the tax retroactively to Romanian-licensed gambling operators’ 2018 performance. Operators will have until February 25 to make this lump-sum payment.