Tbilisi and Batumi: how Georgia's iGaming market works for candidates

While the industry argues over whether Cyprus or Malta is better, thousands of iGaming professionals are already working out of Tbilisi and Batumi — and not out of desperation, but by calculation. Georgia has no internationally recognised gambling licence on the level of the MGA or Curaçao, but it does have what actually matters when you relocate: individual entrepreneur registration with a 1% tax in a matter of days, visa-free entry for most of the nationalities the industry relies on, and a cost of living several times lower than in the Mediterranean. Over the past few years Tbilisi has become the de facto back-office hub for operators targeting the CIS and Eastern European markets, while Batumi is a separate story — seaside casinos with half a century of history. Here is the market, fact by fact: who hires here, what they pay, how the tax is calculated and who relocation genuinely suits.

Why Georgia became a magnet

Batumi's gambling business is nothing new — the seafront casinos have been operating since the 1990s and were historically geared towards Turkish tourists: land-based casinos have been banned for Turkey's own citizens since 1998, and Batumi is a couple of hours by bus from the border. Hence the network of hotel casinos under the brands of major international hotel operators, where roulette and poker rooms run in the evening and the conference halls of an ordinary business hotel operate by day.

Tbilisi is a different and far more recent story. After 2022, operators and providers that had historically worked with teams in Russia and Belarus moved their back office, support and part of their marketing here en masse: it is geographically close, no visa is needed for most of the relevant nationalities, banking in dollars and euros is available, and the cost of renting an office and hiring a competent specialist is noticeably lower than in Cyprus. Add the tax regime for individual entrepreneurs, and the city became the logical assembly point for companies that build teams on contracts rather than through a fully staffed local legal entity.

What companies and roles exist in Tbilisi and Batumi

The market genuinely splits into two distinct segments, and it's worth not mixing them up:

• Batumi — land-based casinos and gaming retail. Dealers, croupiers, cashiers, floor managers, VIP hosts for high-rolling players. This is hands-on, shift-based work on the casino floor, not a remote desk job — and a separate career track from what follows.
• Tbilisi — back office and product teams. This is where you'll find multilingual support agents and CRM managers for brands serving players across the CIS and Eastern Europe; the compliance and AMLteams answering for the parent company's licence requirements; specialists in payments — USDT crypto rails are especially in demand here; and small but growing dev and QA teams for platform providers and slot studios that need a cheap technical hub close to Europe's time zone.

The common thread running through almost all Tbilisi vacancies is that you're hired by a company registered outside Georgia. You physically sit in Tbilisi, while the operator's licence and legal entity sit in Curaçao, Malta, or another jurisdiction.

Most of these teams work out of co-working spaces and small rented offices in Vake, Saburtalo and the business cluster around King David — there are no thousand-person headquarters here; a typical Tbilisi operator team runs from 15 to 150 people: support and CRM on shifts, compliance and payments on daytime hours. Some employers keep a hybrid format — a few days in the office, the rest remote — which lowers the requirement for constant presence for contractors on individual entrepreneur status.

Is this legal

Yes, but with an important caveat worth understanding before you move. Land-based gambling in Georgia has been licensed and regulated by the state for a long time and out in the open — it is not a grey area but a fully mature industry with a history in Batumi. Online gambling is also state-licensed, but the Georgian licence makes sense primarily for operators serving the Georgian market itself, and it is subject to separate strict rules on advertising and local taxation.

International operators and providers with a support, compliance or development team in Tbilisi almost never hold a Georgian gambling licence — they are licensed wherever they actually accept players' bets (Curaçao, MGA, UKGC and so on), and Tbilisi is simply a hiring location for them. For a candidate this means the work is legal and formalised through a contract with a foreign company or through your own individual entrepreneur status, but a compliance manager's duties will concern the requirements of the employer's licence, not Georgian gambling legislation.

Banking is a separate practical nuance. Georgian banks are on the whole friendlier to the iGaming sector than European ones, but some of them still selectively screen incoming transfers from companies with a gambling business profile. In practice this is resolved at the account-opening stage: it is worth asking your future employer's HR in advance which bank current employees' salaries go through, rather than opening an account at random in the first branch you come across.

What it pays

The main difference between Tbilisi and Cyprus or Malta isn't the scale of euro salaries — it's what's left in your pocket after tax. Nominal rates here run 40–55% below Mediterranean levels, but the effective tax burden under sole-trader status can be 15–20 times lower than for an employee in the EU.

Here's how that breaks down by role, compared directly with Cyprus and Malta — the island figures are taken from our breakdown "Working in Cyprus in iGaming":

The nominal gap is real — Georgia doesn't replace Cyprus as a career track at a licensed operator. But once you factor in the cost of living and the sole-trader tax, disposable income is often comparable, and sometimes higher, than the same specialist's take-home in Malta after rent and taxes.

The 1% sole-trader tax: how it works

This is the main reason iGaming contractors look at Georgia at all. Registering as an individual entrepreneur with the Revenue Service takes one day online, and with turnover of up to ₾500 000 a year (roughly $185K) you can apply for 'small business' status — in which case the tax is 1% of turnover, not of profit. Reporting is simple, an accountant costs 30–80 lari a month, and the party hiring you is not a Georgian legal entity but the foreign operator itself — under a services agreement.

It's worth understanding: sole-trader status isn't a loophole around the system — it's an official regime that's existed in Georgia's tax code for years specifically for freelancers, IT specialists and remote contractors. You file a declaration every month, and the Revenue Service sees the full turnover — it's a transparent, legal alternative to being on staff, not a grey scheme.

Turnover above the limit is taxed at a higher rate, and if you exceed it systematically you can lose the status — the exact thresholds and reporting forms are worth checking with a local accountant at the time of your move, as the Revenue Service's rules are refined from time to time. An important caveat: individual entrepreneur status does not automatically give you sick pay, paid leave or pension contributions — that is on you, not the employer, and it should be factored into your rate negotiations.

Visa and residence legalisation

For most of the nationalities typical of the industry — EU citizens, a large part of the CIS and a number of other countries — entry to Georgia is visa-free for an extended period; the exact terms for a specific passport are worth checking before you travel, as the rules are revised periodically. For longer-term legalisation there are two main routes: individual entrepreneur registration with confirmed income (usually enough for a residence permit on the basis of entrepreneurial activity) or the investment route via a property purchase — both go through the migration service, and in practice many companies hiring in Tbilisi help their teams with the paperwork through local immigration consultants.

Life in Tbilisi and Batumi: what it costs

A one-bedroom flat in a residential district of Tbilisi starts at €350–450/month; in the centre or Vake/Saburtalo it is €500–800. Batumi is around 20–30% cheaper outside the summer season, but from June to September seaside rents jump 1.5–2x on the back of the tourist flow. Lunch in a café is €4–7, groceries for one are €200–280/month. Taxis and car-sharing are cheap, and a car is not essential for everyday life in Tbilisi. All in, a comfortable budget for one person excluding rent is around €500–700/month — roughly half what it is in Limassol or Valletta.

Internet in Tbilisi is fast and stable — fibre reaches most newer buildings, so remote work with video calls runs without a hitch. Coworking spaces like Fabrika or Terminal cost €120–180/month and are especially handy for contractors who don't have an employer-provided office.

Who relocation suits, and who it doesn't

Moving to Georgia makes sense if at least one of these is true:

• You're working, or willing to work, on a contract rather than on staff — the 1% sole-trader tax only kicks in under that setup.
• Proximity to the CIS market matters to you: time zone, languages, cultural context — that's exactly why companies keep teams in Tbilisi in the first place.
• Your priority isn't the highest euro salary, but the highest disposable income after tax and rent.
• You're specifically looking at hands-on casino floor work — in that case, look at Batumi's land-based venues separately from Tbilisi.

Relocation fits less well if you care specifically about a track at a licensed operator with MGA or UKGC on your CV, a full European employee benefits package, or a path toward EU residency — Cyprus, Malta or Warsaw make more sense there.

Where to find jobs

There aren't many classic job boards dedicated to Georgia — the market is narrow, and most vacancies close through direct contacts, relocant Telegram chats, and referrals from people already working in Tbilisi teams. A profile that explicitly states willingness to work under a sole-trader contract and lists the market's languages (Russian, Ukrainian, English) gets traction fastest. Live vacancies filtered by city are on the page jobs in Tbilisi, and industry-wide vacancies with paid relocation are in the section relocation jobs.

If you're only just considering entering the industry and aren't sure which role to start with, the article "How to get into iGaming with no experience" breaks down the path for newcomers — many of the same roles are open in Tbilisi too.

FAQ

Do you need to know Georgian? No. The working language for the vast majority of teams is Russian or English; Georgian is only needed for everyday matters and hiring local staff.

Can you register sole-trader status before moving? Registration can be done remotely through a power of attorney, but actual presence in the country is usually required to get tax-resident status and fully legalise your stay.

Is this a temporary phase, or will the market keep growing? As long as the cost-of-living gap and the sole-trader tax regime persist, and operators keep serving Russian-speaking markets, demand for back-office roles in Tbilisi stays steady — this isn't a one-off spike from 2022, but an established segment of the industry.

Do banks block transfers from gambling companies? A legal operator with a foreign licence transfers salary the same way any other company does, but some banks are wary of a counterparty's line of business — check with your employer which bank current staff use before opening an account.