Casinos to pay to local budget MDL 2700 for each slot machine

Chisinau local budget municipality will collect a tax of MLD 2700 for each slot machine from the gambling houses. According to City Hall statistics there are nearly 1950 slot machines in Chisinau thus the amount of money collected to the budget could reach MDL 5 mln. This decision was taken during the Thursday meeting at the City Hall with amendments to a previously made decision on establishing taxes for commercial entities and/or entities providing services. The previous decision specified an annual tax of MDL 900 per slot machine from those 153 gambling houses that provide casino games services. Moreover, the Chisinau Municipal Council amended this decision in compliance with the Law of January 1, 2007, that establishes the maximal tax of MDL 50.000 for activities such as selling lottery tickets, betting, maintaining casinos and any other businesses related to games of chance. Thus, the 10 casinos that operate in Chisinau will contribute to the municipal budget with local taxes of MDL 500.000, in comparison to MDL 108.000, that have been collected from the gambling businesses in 2006. Previously, the local tax for casinos was MDL 12.000. In 2006, according to the municipality, the amount of local tax paid by legal gambling businesses was only MDL 245.700.