Unhappy with the Law on Gambling: Premier Bookmakers Organize Protests

The situation surrounding the amendments to the Law on Gambling in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina escalated on Saturday evening. The "Premier" Sports Betting shop called on its employees, as well as their families and friends, to prepare for the final step – protests in front of state institutions, reports the Patria agency.

The group "Let's Save Our Jobs – Premier Sports Betting" is flooded with posts, comments, and calls for protests against the adoption of amendments to the Law on Gambling, or, as they stated, they are left with "one more form of struggle, and that is protests in front of the FBiH Government in Sarajevo." In this regard, in the coming days, all employees of SK "Premier" will be sent inquiries to gather data on who is interested in participating in the defense of their jobs and how many family members and friends they can bring with them.

This company explained that they have learned that the FBiH Government, and primarily the Minister of Finance Jelka Milićević, do not have and do not want to have understanding for them, and are not interested in the fact that their amendments will close down "Premier" and other private betting shops, leaving all employees jobless.

- Although we still hope that reason will prevail in the House of Peoples of the FBiH and that this law will not be adopted, there are no indications that we can rely on a positive development for us - the Premier betting shops state.

They added that, unfortunately, they are aware that "Premier" will be forced to close its betting points in the Federation of BiH, but also that all indications suggest that the Government of Republika Srpska is also showing tendencies to "copy" the same law that might come into effect in the Federation of BiH.

Respected professor from the Faculty of Economics in Sarajevo, Mehmed Jahić, told Patria that the amendments to the law introducing three tax rates leave room for manipulation, and the tax itself would be paid four times, which is unacceptable.

- The first tax would be paid on the deposit made by the player. And at a rate of five percent. Such a proposal has no legal basis. Player deposits are the sole and total revenue of the gambling organizer. Total revenue in the case of gambling is not considered turnover and as such, according to the VAT Law, cannot be taxed, not even at five percent as the FBiH Government is now proposing.

From the total revenue generated during the year, the gambling organizer pays employee salaries, pension and social contributions for them, rent, operating costs, etc.

The state wants to take the tax a third time if the player makes a profit. Gambling organizers pay the fourth tax at the end of the year, as a tax on profit.