"Everyone loses with the new tax"

Applying a tax on winnings from games of chance in the form adopted in Montenegro would lead to the shutdown of legal organizers, the transfer of players to the gray market and online betting, which would also affect lower budget revenues, is one of the conclusions of yesterday's International Expert Conference about games of chance organized by the association Montenegro bet.

They propose a solution from, as they stated, most European countries, that the players report the tax on winnings through the annual report, and that the state can control it through online supervision of the organizers. The tax has not started to be applied in Montenegro due to the delay of secondary legal acts, and the state tolerates it for now.

The participants of the conference stated that in countries that introduced a similar tax to Montenegro, there was a drastic drop in turnover and budget revenues, which is why these solutions were changed very quickly.

The most recent example is Croatia, which introduced a similar tax on all winnings, as did Montenegro, on January 1 of this year. The president of the Association of sports bettors from this country, Matej Miloš, stated that in January the turnover of the organizers decreased by 19,7 percent and that the decline continued in February, which is why the state is losing income. He said that the players did not want to give part of their winnings to the state, which is why they turned to online betting or the gray market.

"The state realized that it made a mistake and is now trying to limit foreign betting sites, but it is likely that they will change the law," Miloš said.

Participants from Serbia and Romania stated that they had a similar solution, so it was changed and that there are amounts up to which the winnings are not taxed. In Serbia, it is 11.000 dinars, or about 90 euros.

Bojana Bošković, Director of the Ministry of Finance for the Financial System and Improvement of the Business Environment, said that the draft of the new law on games of chance will be completed in a month or two and that she will then present it to the organizers in order to come up with the best solution together.

Experts, authors of laws and representatives of associations of organizers from Great Britain, Belgium, Greece, Malta, Romania and Croatia spoke about the regulation of games of chance in EU countries. Representatives of state institutions said that the conference was useful for them and that they would like to hear their opinions when preparing a new law.

Part of the presentation also referred to Montenegro's attempt to introduce VAT on games of chance, and Assistant Minister Novo Radović said that the Parliament had recently abolished this by amending the law.

If they arranged everything, the state would receive half of the installment for the highway

One of the conclusions is that Montenegro could achieve much higher revenues than the current eight million with better legal regulation of this area, quality supervision and ties with tourism. This was also acknowledged by the director of the Administration for Games of Chance, Marko Ćulafić, who said that the existing law from 2004 was out of date. He stated that they are preparing the introduction of online supervision of organizers, but not when it will be completed.

As an example of a country in which this area is regulated, which is similar to Montenegro, Malta was mentioned. In it, games of chance make up 10 percent of GDP, and in Montenegro, less than one percent. One of the students told "Vijesta" that Montenegro has lost hundreds of millions in the past decade because of the unorganized area.

"If they arranged everything and connected it for tourism, the state income would be half of the installment for the highway", said the interlocutor of "Vijesti". The installment for the highway will amount to around 70 million euros.