Georgia launched an international iGaming licensing regime in July and started promoting it internationally this month.
The structure: Five-year licence, remote application with no physical office or local staff required, 5% GGR tax compared to 20% for domestic-facing operators, zero on reinvested profits, 1% regulatory monitoring fee. Georgian citizens are expressly prohibited from accessing international licence platforms.
The part worth paying attention to. The regime pairs the licence with Georgian corporate banking access and MCC 7995 payment processing from day one. MCC 7995 is the merchant category code for gambling transactions — the one most banks in most jurisdictions won't assign. Having it integrated into the licensing framework rather than left for operators to arrange separately is genuinely unusual, and arguably the most practically significant part of the offer.
The stated target market is operators serving CIS, Central Asia, and other markets where payment rails and regulatory relationships are fragmented, explicitly not competing with Malta or Gibraltar for European-facing operations. So, basically, they want to become the new Switzerland for iGaming.
Additional conditions are due in October. First licensees are preparing to go live.
Has anyone here looked at Georgia seriously yet, or is it still below the radar?
The structure: Five-year licence, remote application with no physical office or local staff required, 5% GGR tax compared to 20% for domestic-facing operators, zero on reinvested profits, 1% regulatory monitoring fee. Georgian citizens are expressly prohibited from accessing international licence platforms.
The part worth paying attention to. The regime pairs the licence with Georgian corporate banking access and MCC 7995 payment processing from day one. MCC 7995 is the merchant category code for gambling transactions — the one most banks in most jurisdictions won't assign. Having it integrated into the licensing framework rather than left for operators to arrange separately is genuinely unusual, and arguably the most practically significant part of the offer.
The stated target market is operators serving CIS, Central Asia, and other markets where payment rails and regulatory relationships are fragmented, explicitly not competing with Malta or Gibraltar for European-facing operations. So, basically, they want to become the new Switzerland for iGaming.
Additional conditions are due in October. First licensees are preparing to go live.
Has anyone here looked at Georgia seriously yet, or is it still below the radar?
