The Serbian Ministry of Finance has proposed a new law on gambling, which is in parliamentary procedure and does not, in a word, specify how the revenue that game organizers will pay into the national budget will be allocated, and under current law it will be used to fund the Red Cross of Serbia, organization of persons with disabilities and other associations.
Under current law, these funds are categorized as “earmarked” budgetary allocations, and are allocated at a rate of 19 percent each to finance the Red Cross of Serbia, organizations of persons with disabilities, social protection institutions, sports organizations and local self-government units.
This earmarked budget revenue, according to the criteria established by the Minister, is allocated so that five percent is also earmarked for financing the treatment of rare diseases.
Executive Director of the National Organization of Disabled Persons Ivanka Jovanovic told Beta they did not participate in a public hearing on the Draft Gambling Law.
“The debate went through an unusual procedure, under the radar of the public”, Jovanovic said.
She added that the organization had tabled amendments and had been promised at the Ministry of Finance that they would be respected, and they were asked to continue funding under current law.
The director of the Gambling Association, Rade Karan, said that, in addition to two others, their association generates about 50 percent of the proceeds of special gambling and that they participated in the public debate, but only in the part of the law that concerns them.
“It is our responsibility to pay a portion of the proceeds from the gaming event to the republican budget, and it is up to the state to distribute them”, Karan told Beta.
The explanatory note to the Gambling Bill states that instead of amending the current law, a new one was proposed, since this is how the methodology envisages when more than half of the members of the law change.
The new law was reportedly proposed “to introduce new legal solutions in line with existing European standards and to create a more advanced monitoring system and procedures that will enable monitoring of the organizers’ real-time electronic traffic in real time”.
He added that “this will directly create conditions for reducing the informal economy, increasing budget revenue and improving the legal framework for preventive action to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing”.
The statement also states that “a significant contribution to socially responsible gaming is the provision stipulating a minimum distance of 100 meters between new gambling sites to protect the population, especially minors, from excessive exposure to the facilities”, Beta reports.
