## Regulating bodies The National Revenue Agency (NRA) is the Gambling Regulator: www.nra.bg Bulgarian Personal Data Protection Commission, oversees data protection: www.cpdp.bg ## Supervision by Regulator The NRA is responsible for supervision of licensed operators, its not clear how stringent this supervision activity is ## Enforcement against licensed operators ## Sanctions According to Article 327 of the Penal Code, those that organise gambling in a manner contrary to law face imprisonment for up to six years and a fine of between BGN 1,000 (500 euros) and BGN 10,000 (5,000 euros). For repeat offenders or if the breach is particularly serious or concerns betting on sports events administered by a sports organisation, the penalty is imprisonment of one to eight years and a fine of BGN 2,000 (1,000 Euros) to BGN 50,000 (25,000 euros). Article 96 of the Gambling Act further stipulates that organising online gambling without the required licence is punishable with a fine of between BGN 1m (500,000 euros) and BGN 2m (1m euros). Breaches of provisions of advertising face fines ranging from BGN 3,000 (1,500 euros) to BGN 5,000 (2,500 euros). ## Liability Individuals have personal liability and are subject to personal sanctions, both punitive and criminal, for breaches to the Gambling Act in Bulgaria. ## Typical triggers for enforcement against unlicensed operators Active targeting of Bulgarian based persons using local language websites, currencies and localised content ## Enforcement action taken against unlicensed operators The Gambling Act provides that National Revenue Agency is required to maintain a list of unlicensed websites. After being listed by the regulator as an unlicensed operator in Bulgaria, operators have three days to cease to target Bulgaria with the offering of their gambling services. Subsequently, should the breach persist, the regulator can apply for the Sofia District Court to order ISPs to block these websites within 24 hours of the issue of the court order. ISPs refusing to comply face penalties ranging from BGN 10,000 (5,000 euros) to BGN 30,000 (15,000 euros). ## Frequency of enforcement Bulgaria actively seeks to enforce against unlicensed operators illegally attempting to target Bulgarian residents by regularly updating its blacklist and implementing website blocking. Its website blocking methods, however, do not seem overly sophisticated as operators frequently circumvent the blacklist of website block via a domain name change. The NRA has shut down over 2,500 unlicensed gambling websites in Bulgaria in the first 10 months of 2024. In September alone, more than 640 decisions were issued to halt illegal online betting operations The NRA has intensified its efforts to combat unlicensed online gambling operations, shutting down over 2,500 illegal betting websites since the beginning of 2024. The campaign aims to enforce compliance with the country's gambling laws and protect consumers from unregulated operators. The NRA gives illegal websites a three-day grace period to cease operations voluntarily. Failure to comply results in the NRA referring the case to the court, which may then instruct internet service providers (ISPs) to block access to non-compliant websites. NRA's have a new power to block unlicensed affiliate channels (websites, apps, social media, streaming), tied to the 2026 affiliate licensing regime, ## Extra-territorial application The Bulgarian authorities do not appear to be attempting to issue sanctions for breaches to its gambling prohibition to operators outside the jurisdiction. Enforcement against operators established outside of the jurisdiction appears equally difficult for the territory due to a lack of a physical presence in the country, and an entity based in the jurisdiction on whom to enforce sanctions. The extent of its enforcement action appears to be the publication of its blacklist and website blocking to a limited extent.
Bulgaria · Question 10 of 11
Enforcement: How hard does the regulator enforce?
Mixed · Probable · Expert approved · 3 post-review updates · Not reviewed · In expert review scope · Back to full Bulgaria report →
Key section parameters
| Jurisdiction | Bulgaria (BG) |
|---|---|
| Regulator | Recorded in register |
| Favourability | Mixed |
| Confidence | Probable |
| Review status | Expert approved · 3 post-review updates · Not reviewed · In expert review scope |
| Last collected | 18 Oct 2026 |
Summary answer
## Regulating bodies The National Revenue Agency (NRA) is the Gambling Regulator: www.nra.bg Bulgarian Personal Data Protection Commission, oversees data protection: www.cpdp.bg ## Supervision by Regulator The NRA is responsible for supervision of licensed operators, its not clear how stringent …
Two enforcement developments moved together this cycle. First, the NRA Director gained a statutory power under Article 17(1)(9a) of the Gambling Act as amended to order the blocking of internet pages, mobile applications, and social or video-streaming profiles belonging to unlicensed affiliates, with that blocking power extending to payment channels via banks and payment providers. Second, the NRA's unlicensed-operator blacklist, which feeds this blocking mechanism, moved from a monthly to a daily refresh cadence, a purely operational escalation that materially compresses the window during which an unlicensed affiliate or operator can continue to transact before being cut off from payment rails. Both changes are dated to the same period as the affiliate-licensing reform and read as a coordinated enforcement build-out rather than isolated actions. No named enforcement events against specific entities were evidenced this cycle; the developments described are the creation of statutory power and operational cadence, not yet a record of individual actions taken under them.
The NRA gained two materially new enforcement powers this cycle, both confirmed and both corroborated by independent trade-press reporting. First, payment-blocking-order power over outgoing bank and payment-service-provider transactions destined for unlicensed affiliates, directly targeting the commission flows that sustain non-compliant affiliate arrangements. Second, website, app, social-media and streaming-channel blocking power, enforced through telecom providers within a 24-hour compliance window. Consistent with the statutory-licensing-stack theory appropriate to a civil-law jurisdiction, both powers derive from the same enabling amendment, Section 34 of the State Budget Act 2026, that created the affiliate licence itself, giving the enforcement regime a MIXED durability rating: real and currently in force, but resting on budget-act transitional provisions rather than a long-standing freestanding enforcement statute. Licence-revocation risk for affiliates concentrates on three drivers: promoting an operator without a valid Bulgarian gambling licence, failing to declare a promotional channel at the point of application, and commission concealment that would trigger the doubled 20 percent withholding rate and associated regulatory scrutiny. No enforcement-event history beyond the creation of these powers was surfaced this cycle; the register does not yet show a case record under the new regime.
The National Revenue Agency's enforcement toolkit was expanded this cycle to include the power to block websites, apps, social-media accounts and streaming channels associated with unauthorised gambling activity or promotion, per the 2026 Budget Act amendments to the Gambling Act. This power is rated Confirmed and DURABLE. A Sofia Regional Court decision reportedly included the prediction-market platform Polymarket among sites ordered blocked, evidencing active use of the expanded authority against a novel offshore product; this specific enforcement-action claim is rated only Uncertain, resting on a single trade-press source, with the Advennt confidence framework capping it there despite an upstream Probable flag. Read together, the durable statutory expansion and the reported enforcement event indicate a shift toward supervising the wider gambling ecosystem, affiliates, distribution channels and offshore platforms alike, rather than licensed operators alone.