Slovenia had a bill poised to go into effect which would have opened their country up to online gaming provisions from nations across the European Economic Community. That is no longer the case. The National Council Commission for Economy, Crafts, Tourism and Finance, the upper house of Slovenia’s parliamentary system, have voted 18 to 12 against, and the bill is now officially dead. The bill may yet rally, but it must now go back to the National Assembly and receive a better than two thirds approval to have a chance of being passed.
Slovenia’s sports betting market is currently a monopoly controlled by one company, Sportna Loterija. This bill would have diversified the sports betting on offer in Slovenia. Proponents of the bill put forward the argument that, with limited options of where to legally play, people in the country have been turning to unregulated sites to wager on sports. Last week, the first hurdle was passed, with the National Assembly okaying the bill 35 to 26. Mr. Branko Zorman, the Member of Parliament who first put forward the bill back in January of 2017, presented the case that up to 85% of the money generated through sports betting was leaving the country thanks to these unregulated foreign providers.
Zorman made the argument that permitting more providers to operate within Slovenia would allow more of this revenue stream to be kept within the nation’s borders and thus benefit Slovenia. The bill also proposed the creation of a licensing system to include €500k annual licensing fees. Its design was oriented around providing consumer rights protections and ensuring that foreign providers were paying suitable taxes and complying with existing national regulations.
Social care representative Boris Šuštaršič was the man who introduced the veto, saying that the introduction of market liberalization would only increase jackpot funds and lower concession fees. Those aligned with Šuštaršič against the bill argue that it is excessively risky, and may in fact cause the market to collapse and threaten the funding provided to disability, sports and humanitarian organizations from these concession fees generated via the operations of Sportna Loterija.
Advocates of Zorman’s bill have suggested that government revenue would increase from €3.5 million to €13 million with this proposal. It’s going to be a close call with the bill now returning to the Assembly, who only passed it by around 57% the first time around, and now need to exceed 66% to pass it in the face of this veto.
