Bosnia and Herzegovina considers ordering closure of betting shops on Sundays

Amendments to the country’s gambling legislation will bring the sector in line with other areas.

Bosnia and Herzegovina.- Betting shops will be prohibited from opening on Sundays under an amendment to the Law on Games of Chance. Dennis Gratz, representative of the Democratic Front in the House of Representatives, has submitted the amendments for parliamentary procedure. The move would apply from November and would bring betting shops in line with other activities.

The current regulations allow betting shops to open from 7am to 11pm every day irrespective of whether a day is defined as a non-working day in other legislation.

“Given that the Ministry, through recent amendments to the Law on Internal Trade, limited the working hours of retail outlets to the period from Monday to Saturday for a total duration of 90 hours per week to give workers the possibility to plan time with their family, I believe that such an amendment to the Law is necessary, socially beneficial and in line with the above-mentioned vision and idea,” Gratz argued.

The proposed change contrasts with the recent move to allow betting shops to open on Sundays in Northern Ireland. Northern Irish gambling legislation was updated in 2022 for the first time since 1985. The ban on Sunday opening was deemed an anachronism after a consultation in 2019 found that 66 per cent of respondents were in favour of the relaxation in opening hours.