Version: 10062004
Editor: Franka Pals
Publisher: Novamedia / Paul Robert
Disclaimer: Novamedia disclaims all liability for information provided within the ”Novamedia European Gaming and Lottery Files”.The information is supplied by independent journalistic sources. No parts of these files may be reproduced in any form by print, photo print, microfilm or otherwise, or re-distributed electronically in any form without written permission from the publisher.
The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes was formed in 1918; its name was changed to Yugoslavia in 1929. The partisan group led my Josip Broz Tito took full control after the German expulsion in '45. His new government, although using a communistic doctrine, successfully steered its own path between the Warsaw Pact nations and the West for the next four and a half decades. Under communist rule, Serbia was transformed from an agrarian to an industrial society. In the 1980s, however, Yugoslavia's economy began to fail.
In the early 1990s, post-Tito Yugoslavia began to unravel along ethnic lines: Slovenia, Croatia, and The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia all declared their independence in 1991; Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992.
The remaining republics of Serbia and Montenegro declared a new "Federal Republic of Yugoslavia" (FRY) in 1992 and, under President Slobodan Milosevic, Serbia led various military intervention efforts to unite Serbs in neighboring republics into a "Greater Serbia."
All of these efforts were ultimately unsuccessful.
In 1999, massive expulsions by FRY forces and Serb paramilitaries of ethnic Albanians living in Kosovo provoked an international response, including the NATO bombing of Serbia and the stationing of NATO, Russian, and other peacekeepers in Kosovo.
In 2001, the country's suspension was lifted, and it was once more accepted into UN organizations under the name of Yugoslavia.
In 2002, the Serbian and Montenegrin components of Yugoslavia began negotiations to forge a looser relationship. As of February 2003, the Yugoslav parliament ceased to be and the Union of Serbia and Montenegro was voted into existence. The Union was agreed in 2002 and will remain unchanged for at least 3 years after which time the individual states can decide whether to stay united or to separate.
Federal elections in the fall of 2000 brought about the ouster of Milosevic and installed Vojislav Kostunica as president. With the elections of 2003 President Svetozar Marovic led the Union. The Kosovo region remains under UN administration.
Milosevic-era mismanagement of the economy, an extended period of economic sanctions, and the damage to Yugoslavia's infrastructure and industry during the war in Kosovo have left the economy only half the size it was in 1990. This has caused a severe unemployment problem that remains a key political economic issue.
| Population: |
10,655,774 |
|---|---|
| Age Structure | 0-14 years: 19.3% (male 1,062,625; female 990,071) |
| Currency: | new Yugoslav dinar (YUM, also used Serbian dinar CSD); |
| GPD | purchasing power parity - $23.15 billion real growth rate - 4% per capita purchasing power parity - $2,200 (2002 est.) Source: CIA |
| Mobile | 3.439 million mobile telephone subscribers |
| Internet | 847,000 internet users in the beginning of 2004 |
| Lottery Sales | Total lottery sales per capita in Serbia - 4 US dollar in 2000 |
On the 10th of October 2002 the Serbian government sent the Draft law on games of chance to the Serbian Parliament. This law effectively abolishes the three lotteries that currently exist in Serbia, namely the Lottery of Serbia, the Lottery of Belgrade and the National Lottery. These will cease to exist in their current form when the new State Lottery of Serbia becomes operative.
With the adoption of this law, the gray economy would be reduced in this sector while payment of public revenue would no longer be merely symbolic as it has been the case so far.
The Office of games of chance will be founded within the Ministry of Finance and Economy, which will issue working permits to gambling houses, betting offices and gambling-machine clubs, issue special labels which will be put at the entrance to betting offices, gambling houses, and gambling-machine clubs, approve performing classical games of chance and set a unique software for betting offices.
The law defines betting as a game in which a participant bets on scores of individual or group sport competitions, certain event during sport competition (number of goals scored, which team shall score the first goal, which player shall be the best scorer during the competition and alike), horse races, dog races and races of other animals and other events.
Unlike classical games of chance for which the State Lottery of Serbia is in charge, betting is regarded as specific game of chance for which the government issues the permits.
The law stipulates that betting offices must be connected with the computer network of the Office of games of chance, taking care of the expenses on their own. Therefore a real insight in received payments and paid prizes will be made possible. Betting offices will be charged 20 percent of the total value of the received payments for participating in the game, i.e. sold lottery tickets upon deduction of the premium fund.
The legal entity licensed to organize special games of chance in betting offices must have initial capital of five million dinars minimum and the money placed with a bank or the bank guarantee in the value of one to three million dinars depending on the number of selling spots.
The basic capital of at least 30 million dinars must be provided for organizing games of chance. The organizer must have in the cashier of the gambling house risk-deposit in the amount of at least three million dinars in the currency in which the payments and collections are made.
The concession for organizing special games of chance is given at a tender for the period of up to seven years to persons who were not sentenced for the period exceeding six months of prison during the last five years.
The charge for the period of seven years totals 18 million dinars or 21 million in installments.
Games of chance are arranged for the purpose of participants' entertainment and making available financial means as revenue for the Republic of Serbia.
The revenues shall be utilized in the fields of social and humanitarian activities and amateur sports which are in charge of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Social Affairs.
Gray economy has taken hold in this sector during the previous decade. Payment of public revenues was symbolic - totaling 92 million dinars from Jan. 1 to March 31, 2002. Experiences of many developed countries point to the fact that the state cannot leave games of chance to the market, but it must establish the monopoly over this sector.
The previous law on games of chance could also provide funds for financing social and humanitarian activities, organizations of the disabled and amateur sports, but since the revenues where so low little aid was actually given.
The new law on games of chance is expected to appear on the Parliament's agenda at one of its following sessions, but as mentioned earlier has been postponed until further notice.
Current reforms are going slow in Serbia and well over one and a half years later the law is still not adopted. The operating lotteries think this will still take more time.
For the complete draft please see our extra attachments on our Novamedia Gaming Files website.
Serbia's new Finance Minister Mladjan Dinkic proposed on march 10, 2004 that he would abolish capital gains tax and slash income tax by a third to attract investors away from EU accession countries.
Dinkic's predecessor Bozidar Djelic's proposal was to cut income tax by a third would be equivalent to a cut in receipts in the region of $250 million, according to local analysts.
But Dinkic said any lost revenue could be at least partly if not fully offset by the launch of a new lottery tax that would earn at least 100 million Euros a year for the budget.
Source: B92 News.
The Serbs adore betting and spend a lot of money on it. They do prefer betting to lottery games like lotto and bingo. There are a lot of private sports bets that earn a lot of money.
Total spending per capita in 1999 was 4 US dollar with total sales amounting to well over 40 million US dollars in the same year.
Lottery Games that are available in Serbia and Montenegro are:
TV Bingo is the most popular game in Serbia and Lotto 7/39 is the most popular lotto game in Serbia. Every lottery game pays 50% of its revenue back in the form of prize money.
There are 3 operators in Serbia
Narodna lutrija (National Lottery)
Website: http://www.yulottery.co.yu/
The national lottery of Serbia is the largest of the three.
As the most popular game in Serbia is TV bingo it is also the top seller of Narodna lutrija. It sells 2.000.000 tickets annually. The other games sell about 1.000.000 tickets per year.
The sales of the Lotto games are highly dependent on the height of the jackpots. Currently Narodna sell about 50.000 tickets per week.
End 2002 lottery provider Intralot was awarded a 10-year contract from Narodna Lutrija, the State Lottery Organization in Serbia for the organization and management of fixed odds betting games. The game was launched in the first half of 2003.
Narodana also works together with Yugolot, which is a subsidiary of the Greek Intralot, on their sports betting "kvoto".
The other two lotteries in Serbia are;
There is also one lottery operator in Montenegro, namely:
Yugolot, an Intralot's subsidiary, has undertaken the operation and support of the on-line integrated lottery systems provided to the Lottery of Belgrade, as well as services related to advertising and promotion of the games. Currently there are six games of LOTTO and TOTO available in the market.
Yugolot while expanding its agreement with the Lottery of Belgrade has undertaken the marketing support of the games among other services. In this context, the "Super Lotto" was sponsor of a great event like the 12th FINA Water Polo World Cup in 2002 as part of a very successful advertising campaign.
The 'Super Lotto' (5/43+1/20), is a LOTTO type game. It is expected that the new game will contribute to the revenues increase of the Lottery, which in the first 8 months of 2002 posted a 25% increase in sales and consolidated its position among the country's foremost gaming organizations.
Moreover, Yugolot is a strategic partner of Telekom Srbija since April 2000 in the distribution of public telephony phone cards and prepaid mobile-phone cards. Exploiting a distribution network of 4,000 points of sale, Yugolot consolidates 1/3 of the market, being the largest distributor in Serbia.
Yugolot was chosen because of its know-how and its experience in developing new telecommunications sales network. Telephone card sales are steadily increasing in Yugoslavia accounting for 90 percent of total sales.
Yugolot operates the online lottery game in Belgrade.
In Yugoslavia, Yugolot's revenues from lottery operations have posted a 53% year to year growth in the first 9 months of 2003. Moreover, the recently introduced fixed odds betting game has posted significant growth in the past months.
In the first nine months of 2003 Yugolot had a revenue of 1.3 million Euro.
Intralot is engaged in the development of integrated gaming systems and provides multiple services related to the design, development, operation and support of games.
Gaming applications of Intralot include: Numerical Lotteries, TV Lottery Games, Sports Lotteries, Fixed Odds Betting, Horseracing, Instant Lotteries and video lottery games.
Following a highly successful period of rapid growth, Intralot is ranked 3rd in revenues and 2nd in profits, based on 2002 financial results, among lottery suppliers worldwide, and maintains a steady course towards the leading position in the global market. Today the company has secured an important position in the European and South American markets while is expanding its presence in North America and S.E. Asia.
Intralot is an affiliate of the intracom Group. Intracom is considered one of the largest technological companies in Europe and one of the top 100 fastest developing companies world-wide.
Based on the Group's expertise in Information Technology and Telecommunications, Intralot has developed a flexible and comprehensive on-line lottery environment that covers all gaming, wagering and logistical requirements of a modern lottery organization.
Intralot is actively involved in the management and operation of Lottery Organizations.
Most importantly, being an operator has afforded Intralot valuable insight in the real-life concerns faced by a Lottery Organization.
Intralots' revenue in 2000 was 242.1 million Euro.
Casino gambling was first introduced in Yugoslavia in 1964. Most casinos operate within large hotels catering to international clientele. Recently there were 9 casinos in the remaining Serbia and Montenegro regions. But many have interrupted their operation due to the civil conflict in the region and the lack of foreign tourist. Since 1979 casino gambling has been under government control. Gaming is restricted to individuals 18 years of age or older.
For more information check the following site http://www.casinocity.com/YU/cities.html