The draft law on games of chance taxes the legal organizers of games of chance to the maximum, beyond realistic possibilities, while a subsequent fight against illegal organizers is only promised. Domestic registered media are also left without a significant part of the income, while it is stated that it will not be possible to prevent the advertising of games of chance by media that exist in the media space of Montenegro, but are based abroad.
These are the main objections from yesterday's round table on the game of chance draft prepared by the Ministry of Finance.
The most significant novelties of the law are the transition from the concessional allocation of the right to organize to the allocation through an administrative procedure, the significant and one hundred percent increase in the amount of fees for the organizers, the abolition of advertising of games of chance except for live broadcasts of sports matches, the abolition of public interest that the money from the fees must be spent on humanitarian activities, sports, culture,... The government expects that the changes in the law will bring 45 million euros to the state budget, as well as that this money will affect the reduction of the deficit in the state coffers due to the reduction of pension insurance contributions .
The representatives of the organizers pointed out, among other things, that this draft law is a step backwards compared to the previous one, that high fees and new obligations will stifle the organizers and the state will have no income,...
Complaints were also made that the organizers are not obliged to prevent gambling addiction according to the program of the Ministry of Health, and that the ministry was not informed at all that it was receiving this obligation by this law, that the Ministry of Culture and Media was not informed at all that bans were being imposed on the media, which are not in the Media Act. , that the Agency for Electronic Communications was not informed about bans on advertising in electronic media, even though it should be monitoring it,...
Representatives of the Ministry of Finance Jovana Nišavić i Danko Dragović they said that the public debate is being extended until November 25, that they will consider all the remarks they heard at the round table, as well as that they will subsequently inform the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Culture and the Media and the Agency for Electronic Communications about their obligations regarding the draft of the new of the law.
Jovana Klisic from "MeridianBet" stated objections that player payments are limited to online betting only from bank cards and not through payment services, as well as that this violates the freedom of business guaranteed by the constitution.
Miloš Lalević from "Admiral Beta" said that this draft law, along with the already introduced tax on winnings in games of chance, represents a serious business barrier, as well as that it is necessary to establish a balance so that the state has income and organizers can continue to operate normally.
"If there is no organizer, there will be no additional income for the state," Lalević said.
Lucija Andjelic from the Montenegrobet Association, stated that the proposal from the draft to keep a separate record of that player with his personal data for every payment of more than 20 euros should be changed, because it is not possible to do this when it comes to live games, and that to maintain the norm from the law on prevention of money laundering, where that sum is 2.000 euros.
Savo Martinović the president of the Group of Organizers in the Chamber of Commerce said that this law is a step backwards and that its authors only looked at the interest of the state to fill the coffers, but that they did not take into account whether the organizers could fulfill these obligations and whether these compensation amounts were possible. He stated that many norms in the law are unclear, that they are not applicable and that the acquired rights of the organizers based on concession contracts that are valid for another ten years are being destroyed.
Žarko Dragoljević from "Maestral" said that he worked in several casinos in the EU, that he consulted colleagues around the world and that he did not find anywhere that what was imposed for casinos in the draft of this law was applied. As examples, he cited the proposed rule that devices cannot be recorded as having a negative result if they had more winnings than the players paid in, in order to charge more through a variable fee, as well as the example of introducing a special fee of three percent on turnover when players play against each other and that the casino pays for it.
Igor Mujevic from the "Sporting Group" said that the increase in the fixed fee per betting site from 500 to 1.000 euros and for machines from 50 to 100 euros per month, as well as the variable fees from 10 to 15 percent, is too large. He believes that the maximum amount would be an increase to 700 euros per betting site, 70 euros per machine and 12 percent of the variable fee.
Marijana Zec from the Group of Editors in PKCG said that the editors had to be included in the working group that prepared the text of the law, as well as that it was a legal obligation, and listed a series of objections from the Group on 14 pages. She also pointed out that there are 110 penal provisions in 380 articles of the law.
Oleg Sekulić from "Volcano" stated that this draft threatens the rights acquired on the basis of the current contracts and the survival of this industry with three and a half thousand employees, which will affect lower state revenues. He also stated that lottery games must remain state-owned but without any private-public contracts and business.
The organizers asked how and where they can train their employees to recognize addicts and where it is taught. Lena Boskovic from "Volcano" said that she was interested in the Ministry of Health, the Institute of Public Health and the Public Institution for Addictions in Kakaricka Gora, where workers can be trained to recognize addicts and assess them, but that all three institutions told her that about they are not informed about it and know nothing about these future obligations.
Representatives of the Ministry of Finance replied that the Ministry of Health would prescribe it, although they admitted that they had not yet informed the Ministry of Agriculture that it had this obligation.
"The proposed solution is inapplicable for several reasons. Namely, the last paragraph of Article 13 stipulates that the method of conducting the training from paragraph 3 (training of employees of the organizer who have direct contact with the players) is prescribed by the ministry responsible for health affairs, and according to the information received from the Ministry of Health , Institute of Public Health and JU Kakaricka Gora, there is no institution in Montenegro that would be responsible for this type of training for the employees of the organizers, and that any activities in the sense of preventive action against diseases addictions should not be undertaken by non-experts or persons who have undergone some basic training, but only by trained psychologists and doctors of appropriate specialization," said Bošković.
The public debate is ongoing, and the figures are already in the budget
Representative of the organizer "Vesuvius" Goran Ćetković said that according to the law on the budget, the government must adopt the budget proposal for the next year by November 15 and asked the representatives of the Ministry of Finance if they had already included the amounts of compensation from this draft of games of chance in the budget proposal for the next year and if they are now in vain comment on their amounts.
"Who will be responsible if this turns out to be unsuccessful", Ćetković asked but did not receive an answer.
On Friday, the government should propose to the Parliament the budget for the following year, and the public debate on the draft law on games of chance will formally last another ten days.
Filip Patković from "MNA Gaming" said that the illegal organization of games of chance should have been suppressed first, and only then should higher fees and new obligations be introduced for legal organizers.
The ban on advertising shuts down the media
Representatives of several media that participated in the round table from "Daily Press", "Dana", "Biznis CG" and the Association of Electronic Media indicated that the ban on advertising will reduce by 10 to 20 percent the income of the media, which are barely surviving on the market anyway.
Predrag Zecevic from "Biznis CG" said that he found 15 items in the law that are unconstitutional, discriminatory and anti-European and suggested that the law be withdrawn from the procedure.
Srdja Pavićević from the Association of Electronic Media said that most media operate with a result of around zero and that this will push them into a loss. He stated that the norms on limiting advertising were copied from the draft law in Serbia, but that it had already been changed and the restrictions eased during their public discussion.
Sanja Bracanovic from "Daily Press" and TV Vijesti, she said that the advertising of the organizer is one of the most important revenues of the commercial media, as well as that this type of restriction does not exist in comparative practice.
Marijana Bojanic from TV Vijesti said that these proposals privilege the Public Service RTCG, because only it with a subsidy from the budget of 20 million euros can broadcast sports events and thus have the right to advertise the organizers.
The Ministry promised special meetings with the media during the next week.
Bonus video:
