In the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the average salary only slightly exceeded a thousand marks and as such is only a noun for workers in the real sector, and most retirees survive on a pension of less than 400 marks, data on money spent in betting shops sounds almost unbelievable.
According to the data of the Tax Administration, last year the citizens of the Federation spent almost one billion and six hundred million marks in betting shops. Although a number of economic experts have skeptically denied the possibility of spending such a large amount in betting shops, the official data of the Tax Administration are relentless.
And according to these data, in the territory of the Federation, 12 legal entities are registered that perform the activity of organizing games of chance – betting, with 2,119 payment points.
“In 2021, they achieved a total turnover of 1,598,112,128 BAM. These are payments made by players on the basis of different types of betting “, says Adis Durak, head of the Department for Inspection Supervision at the Tax Administration of the FBiH Cantonal Tax Office Novi Travnik.
In other words, almost half a billion more was left in betting shops last year than the budget of the richest Sarajevo Canton. Residents of Tuzla, Herzegovina-Neretva, Sarajevo and Central Bosnia left the most money in betting shops, followed by Central Bosnia, which is the last in terms of average salary for years.
