Third casino to bring incomes to budget – Government of Serbia gave consent for opening of another casino

The Government of Serbia made the decision on Thursday to approve of the opening of another, the third casino in our country. The reason is more than simple: gambling brings excellent incomes to the budget and, as the people from the Government say, it “makes the tourist offer richer”.

The tender for new license will be announced soon. It has not been specified yet how much will the license cost this time. "Novosti" reminds that “Grand Casino”, which got the permit in 2005 to open the only casino within the radius of 30 km from the Parliament of city of Belgrade, paid 18m EUR for the license. One year later, Slovenian "Hit" paid 2.5m EUR for the license to open the casino in the “next belt”, that is, between 30 and 50 km away from the center of Belgrade.

- In accordance with European standards, which limit the number of casinos per country, Serbia is divided into ten parts and each of them should get one casino through allotment of one license per year – people in the Government of Serbia explain.

The price for the current “belt” has not been specified yet, but it is clear that it will be lower tha the prices for two previous licenses.

When it comes to taxation, the organizers of the games of chance, as well as the casino owners, do not enjoy any special reliefs in Serbia when compared to the surrounding countries, or even Europe. In addition to the money for the license, they also need to offer a fee for the arrangement on the tender, which usually amounts to 20% of the casino’s projected turnover that is calculated in advance.

Therefore, in addition to 18m EUR for the ten-year license, "Grand Casino" also offered the same amount as the fee for the arrangement activities, which means that it promised to pay the annual tax of minimum 1.8m EUR.

In addition to the money for the license, "Hit Casino" also offered to pay 7.5m EUR within the next ten years as the fee for the arrangement activities.

- This fee is fixed, and it represents minimum amount that must be paid regardless of the casino’s operations. If the projected turnover is exceeded, additional tax of 20% is to be paid on the difference – said the people from the Government of Serbia.

50m EUR per year

Ever since the Law on Games of Chance was put in effect at the beginning of year 2005, nearly 240m EUR worth of incomes from the arrangement of various games of chance were registered in the Republic budget, which means that the state’s annual incomes amount to about 50m EUR.

(Note: complete text is taken over from newspaper "Novosti" of October 2nd, 2009)