Estonia Keeps Gambling Ad Rules Despite 45 Percent Breach Rate

Estonia does not plan an immediate ban or tighter gambling advertising rules, despite finding legal breaches in 45% of adverts reviewed during 2025. Officials instead point to better compliance compared with 2023 and a wider review of the Advertising Act.

Good to Know

• TTJA reviewed 230 adverts across 15 gambling brands.
• Regulators found 104 breaches, down from a 98.7% breach rate in 2023.
• Google, Meta and YouTube carried 103 of the 104 non-compliant adverts.

Digital Channels Account for Nearly Every Breach

The Consumer Protection and Technical Regulatory Authority, known as TTJA, approved 126 adverts and found 104 in breach of Estonian advertising law.

Warning text caused the most problems, appearing incorrectly in 79 adverts. TTJA also found 54 prohibited calls to gamble, 46 adverts for games of chance in restricted locations and eight misleading promotions. One advert could contain several violations.

Google search carried 71 of the non-compliant adverts, followed by Meta with 24 and YouTube with eight. Only one breach appeared outdoors. The result exposes a gap in rules written around named media such as television and radio rather than search engines and social platforms.

Estonian law tightly limits promotion for poker, roulette and slots. Operators cannot directly encourage play, and welcome bonuses can count as prohibited calls to action. Sports betting and lotteries have wider advertising access but still face restrictions.

TTJA treated the 2025 result as progress. A comparable 2023 project found 98.7% of inspected adverts in breach. During 2025, the regulator handled nine proceedings, heard from 10 companies and issued one formal order.

Estonia Favors Wider Advertising Reform

Mari-Liis Aas, Consumer Protection Advisor at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, told ERR that no gambling-specific restriction or ban is currently planned.

She said:

“We at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications have indeed set a goal of updating the Advertising Act, but since this entire procedure is in its very early stages, unfortunately it is not yet possible to say whether or to what extent the gambling advertising regulation will be changed in the future.”

The government programme includes a proposal to ban gambling and payday loan advertising, but the ministry has argued that any ban requires evidence on likely impact and whether other measures could reduce household debt more effectively.

The figures also need context. TTJA selected adverts through risk-based supervision and focused on restricted products and channels. The 45% rate therefore covers a targeted sample rather than every gambling advert shown in Estonia.

The post Estonia Keeps Gambling Ad Rules Despite 45 Percent Breach Rate appeared first on iGaming.org.