Bosnia struggles to reform gambling regulations
Whilst politicians agree on the need for stricter gambling regulations, reform is proving difficult to get through parliament.
Bosnia.- Experts and politicians agree on the fact that Bosnia desperately needs to tighten up its gambling regulations. However, reform is proving difficult to get through parliament.
Reform of gambling legislation is needed because betting is becoming one of the most popular activities in the country. In Republika Srpska, Bosnia’s Serb-dominated entity, 15 companies operate 756 betting shops; whilst in the Federation 13 companies operate 2,443 shops. Given that Bosnia’s population is around 3.8 million, it means the country has one betting shop for every 1,000 persons.
Current legislation is unsatisfactory when it comes to preventing gambling addiction and the establishment of programs to treat people who suffer from problem gambling, which is becoming more common in Bosnia, explained Nermana Mehic-Basara, a neuropsychiatry and director of the Public Institute for Addiction Diseases in Sarajevo.
Denis Gratz, who is the president of the civic party Our Party [Nasa Stranka] and member of the House of Representatives in the Federation, believes taxes on gambling should rise. “Betting shops in the Federation pay no tax on wins under 100 KM (US$56)” said Gratz, adding that this should change and that the law should increase the minimum distance between schools and betting points, which is currently only 100 meters.
In the Federation, representatives of the Party of Democratic Action, SDA, has proposed a new law estimates say it would bring €23 million (US$26 million) more to the entity budget per year. The proposal was eventually discarded by the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZBiH.
“This proposal is not acceptable in a pre-election period,” Lidija Bradara, from the HDZBiH. Amir Zukic, one of the SDA members who authored the draft, said that his party would not abandon the idea of reforming the law. “The SDA will seek … to change this law and obtain adequate fiscal treatment (for betting shops),” Zukic said after the reform was rejected.
