A fresh tax fight is brewing in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s gambling sector, after lawmakers from the social-liberal Our Party launched a bid to end the industry’s VAT exemption and bring “games of chance” closer to how the state taxes other products linked to public harm.
The pitch was that, if cigarettes and alcohol face VAT and excise duties because they carry health and social costs, why should gambling be treated more gently.
The proposal would make betting shops and casinos subject to VAT by removing a single exemption in the state VAT law. The House of Representatives voted to send the change forward, with the bill now heading to the House of Peoples for the next stage.
“The only legal activity that creates addiction”
Mia Karamehić-Abazović, an MP in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s state-level House of Representatives, has been the public face of the proposal. In remarks carried by local outlet and repeated by industry media, she argued that gambling is currently the outlier when it comes to state-level taxation.
“Today, gambling is the only legal activity that creates addiction but is not taxed at the state level. Alcohol and tobacco products are subject to both excise taxes and VAT precisely because of the harmful consequences for citizens’ health.”
She also criticised the idea that gambling should enjoy a more favourable tax position than essentials such as food, medicine and books.
A parallel push in the Federation: “elementary fiscal fairness”
Alongside the VAT change, Amir Purić, an Our Party lawmaker in the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH), is calling for amendments to the Federation’s gambling rules that would lift public revenue from the sector.
He said the Federation currently takes in less than KM 35m a year from an industry he put at KM 1.8bn in annual revenue, and he wants that public return moved closer to KM 150m annually, plus KM 50m for local communities.
“The proposed amendments increase that amount to at least KM 150m annually for the Federation, with an additional KM 50m for local communities. This is a matter of elementary fiscal fairness.”
Purić has argued the extra money should be steered into areas that are politically hard to ignore: cancer care, treatment for serious and rare diseases, programs dealing with compulsive behaviour, and medical equipment, with room for spending on wider public projects as well.
Another proposal is already sitting on the shelf
This is not the first attempt to re-route gambling money in the Federation.
In November 2025, Democratic Front MP Dennis Gratz floated a distribution model that would direct 60% of gambling tax revenue to the Federation treasury, 20% to social initiatives, and 20% to specialised healthcare via the Solidarity Fund, but it has not advanced.
VAT would raise the cost base for licensed operators
Bosnia and Herzegovina operates a single VAT system at the state level, with a standard VAT rate widely cited at 17%, so ending an exemption is not a small technical tweak.
Bosnia’s gambling rules and taxes already vary across entities and, in the Federation, by canton. Even if VAT is added at the state level, regulators will still face the bigger headache: online operators based abroad and payment channels that can keep flowing unless authorities tighten controls.
The bill’s backers argue that higher, clearer taxation should both discourage excessive play and create revenue that can be directed toward healthcare and social services tied to gambling damage.
The bill has cleared the House of Representatives, but it still needs approval in the House of Peoples to become law. In the meantime, the debate is unlikely to cool down: lawmakers pushing the change say the public is demanding tougher action on gambling harm, while the industry can be expected to warn about job losses, channelisation, and players drifting further toward offshore sites.
Source: Klix