Bosnia Struggles to Tighten Gambling Regulations

Bosnia has no an effective gambling law, despite having the highest registered number of betting shops per resident in Europe.

"We aren't satisfied by the current regulation," Nermana Mehic-Basara, a neuropsychiatrist and director the Public Institute for Addiction Diseases in Sarajevo, told BIRN on Thursday.

Current legislation is unsatisfactory when it comes to preventing the gambling addiction and the establishment of programs to treat people who suffer from it, which is becoming more common in Bosnia, Mehic-Basara stressed.

Politicians from the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of the two entities of Bosnia, increasingly say the topic should be better regulated also from the fiscal point of view.

Denis Gratz, president of the civic party Our Party [Nasa Stranka] and member of the House of Representatives in the Federation, told BIRN that taxes on gambling should rise.

"Betting shops in the Federation pay no tax on wins under 100 KM [around 50 euros]," Gratz said, adding that this should change.

He also said the law should increase the minimum distance between schools and betting points, which is currently only 100 meters.

Reform of gambling legislation is needed also because betting is becoming one of the most popular activities in the country, as Bosnia is the European country with the highest number of registered betting shops per resident.

In Republika Srpska, Bosnia's Serb-dominated entity, 15 companies operate 756 betting shops; while in the Federation 13 companies operate 2,443 shops, television N1 reported.

Given that Bosnia's population is around 3.8 million, it means the country has one betting shop for every 1,000 persons.

In the RS, betting companies need to pay the entity's tax...