Poor business or fraud: Three slot machine clubs from BiH have not paid a single mark of profit tax

Three companies in Bosnia and Herzegovina that organize gambling in slot machine clubs have not paid a single mark of profit tax for several years, writes the Patria agency.

According to data from the Tax Administration of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the companies AMONIQ d.o.o. Zenica, CRVENO-CRNO d.o.o. Mostar, and AK KOMET d.o.o. Kalesija, which organize gambling in slot machine clubs, have reported operating at a loss, after which they were not obliged to pay profit tax.

The Law on Games of Chance of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina stipulates that slot machines must be set up to pay out at least 80 percent of the amount wagered through winnings, with 20 percent remaining for the owners for business operations and profit. Based on this, AMONIQ and AK KOMET reported operating at a loss for the years 2014, 2015, and 2016, while the company CRVENO-CRNO from Mostar reported a loss for the years 2015 and 2016, after which they were exempted from profit tax.

Did these companies really operate at a loss? Why has the owner of the company been suffering losses for three years?

The owner of these slot machine clubs is listed as HTL d.o.o. Sarajevo, whose founder is the international gambling company Austrian Novomatic, which has already been at the center of a scandal in Austria due to suspicions of bribing local politicians.

Novomatic's entry into the Bosnian and Herzegovinian market through the company HTL and cooperation with the Lottery of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2006 was facilitated by a group of people from the Party of Democratic Action.

The then management of BH Lottery signed an agreement with HTL, after which about 1,500 Novomatic slot machines were installed in the Lottery's branches.

The agreement states that Novomatic and BH Lottery share profits equally, while the obligations for employees and maintenance are borne by BH Lottery. According to many, such an agreement is detrimental to the BH company. In the last three years, for precisely this reason, HTL was able to report a total profit of 8.9 million KM, while BH Lottery reported only 911.5 thousand KM.

The Federal Ministry of Finance has not yet commented on why they have been issuing two-year operating permits to AMONIQ, CRVENO-CRNO, and AK KOMET if they have consistently reported operating at a loss.