Croatia considers online foreign sites registration

The Ministry of Finance is considering a measure that would force foreign operators to legalise their business in the country.

Croatia.- Croatian authorities are reportedly working towards a new regulation that would make foreign online betting sites legalise their business in the country or cease operations. The Ministry of Finance is considering the measure as it claims that foreign operators don’t pay fees.

The online gambling industry in Croatia is worth approximately €270 million a year, and the Ministry finds it unbelievable that the government is not taxing the industry, considering the country’s public finances are suffering. Jutarnji List believes that this is the result of tax authorities refusing to deal with the issue of taxing online providers.

Advocates of the current situation in the sports betting market argue that fees for betting and related winnings are already high and “unjust”, therefore it is acceptable for some players to turn to online betting. Legal betting agents currently charge 5% of the amount paid and players pay a minimum of 10% on their payouts,  up to a maximum of 30% of the winnings over €67k.

European countries usually take time to come up with new regulations as they tend to break gambling monopolies. In this case, Croatia’s sports betting market is not operated by just one operator since the two largest legal betting chains, Super Sport and Hattrick-PSK, are privately owned.