Citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina spend billions of marks in betting shops every year. Betting, games of chance, gambling are practiced by a huge number of people, among them a large number of young people. Almost half of the inhabitants of Bosnia and Herzegovina have tried one of the games of chance at least once, according to research. Experts warn: we are not even aware of the scale of this problem.
More and more citizens are looking for salvation and a way out of the crisis in betting shops and casinos. Gambling is becoming a problem that a large part of society is not even aware of.
“We still don’t talk about gambling as the problem it really is. Some estimates say that in BiH more than 500 thousand people visit betting shops and gamble every day, and that of that number some 50 thousand are pathological gamblers. Which means that people who have developed a gambling addiction”, says Sanela Pakic from Association for Prevention of Addiction NARKO-NE Sarajevo.
The best indicator of the scale of gambling and betting is the data of the Tax Administration of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina that organizers of games of chance turn over billions of marks every year. The Tax Administration of Republika Srpska does not want to disclose data for this entity, but there are certainly no major deviations. Annually, citizens spend more on betting and gambling than the state gets from the IMF or the World Bank to fix potholes.
According to the records of the Tax Administration of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in 2022, taxpayers-organizers of games of chance by betting achieved a total turnover in the amount of 1,712,384,153 BAM, which is 114 million BAM more than in 2021. Total sports and RNG betting for the period 2016-2022 is 11,326,778,126 BAM.
There are several centers in Bosnia and Herzegovina that deal with helping gambling addicts. Experts say that treating this addiction like any other is very difficult and complex.
“It certainly implies the involvement of family members at one point because it is very often the family that supports gambling in some invisible ways. In general, it’s a story that, how can I tell you, people are ashamed of it, it’s complex”, adds Tanja Radosavac from Center for the Protection of Mental Health Banja Luka.
The organizers of games of chance point out that all their employees at the payment points are trained to react adequately when they notice that a player has a problem.
“What I would like to emphasize here is that participation in games of chance is first of all a matter of personal choice and that this is an activity regulated by law and that here, in principle, we contribute to the preservation of a system regulated by law through professional work on prevention and problem detection,” explains Selma Salkanovic from Association of legal organizers of games of chance ALPIS.
As with other addictions, such as narcotics, the state does almost nothing about gambling. But he doesn’t complain too much that he has an increasing income on this basis from year to year.
