News from Brazil, where President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed a measure banning sports betting and online games, has once again raised the question of how much gambling has become a major social and financial problem. Serbia, however, is far from taking such a decision. Bookmakers and casinos remain a fixture of everyday life, with the money circulating through them measured in tens of billions of dinars.
According to data from the Games of Chance Administration, at the end of 2025 Serbia had 2,849 locations housing bookmakers, slot machine clubs, and casinos. Although their physical numbers are declining – down from 3,060 in 2020 – data from the Games of Chance Administration shows that the online sector is growing rapidly at the same time.
Even more striking are the figures showing the revenue the state derives from games of chance. During 2025, a total of 28.08 billion dinars in fees was collected. Of that, traditional sports betting generated 4.07 billion dinars, whilst special games of chance via electronic communications – namely online gaming – accounted for a staggering 9.78 billion dinars. These two sectors alone brought in 13.85 billion dinars for the state.
Furthermore, the online market is expanding far faster than the physical network. State fees from online games increased from 6.41 billion dinars in 2024 to 9.78 billion in 2025, an increase of 52.66 per cent in just one year.
How much is actually lost?
It is impossible to provide a single precise figure to answer this question, as the state does not publicly publish the sum of all player stakes and payouts in a way that would allow for a straightforward calculation of citizens’ total losses.
However, the Law on Games of Chance provides an important framework. Betting operators pay a fee of 15 per cent on the difference between total stakes and total player winnings, whereas different rules and rates apply to certain online games.
Therefore, state revenues offer only a rough order-of-magnitude estimate rather than a definitive figure. If the full 13.85 billion dinars in state fees from betting and online games were treated as a 15 per cent fee on the difference between stakes and payouts, it would indicate a tax base of approximately 92.3 billion dinars. In other words, we can reliably state that the amount of money remaining in betting and online gaming after paying out players is measured in tens of billions of dinars annually.
How much does an individual gambler lose?
There is no reliable answer here either for the “average punter”. We do not know how many people in Serbia gamble regularly, how much they stake, how much they win, or how many unique individuals contribute to the total turnover.
However, data does exist regarding the most severe forms of the problem.
According to research by the Institute of Public Health of Serbia “Dr Milan Jovanović Batut”, based on data from 2018, between 51,000 and 93,000 people in Serbia had a gambling problem, whilst an estimated 14,000 to 33,000 fell into the category of pathological gambling. These are the latest widely cited figures of this kind; Serbia has not conducted a new, precise national estimate since.
Because of this, it would be misleading to divide the total money lost in the market solely by 14,000 or 33,000 people to calculate an “average loss”. A large proportion of the total turnover is generated by non-addicted players, whereas individuals with a severe problem can lose many times more than any calculated average.
What does this mean for a Serbian family?
According to data from the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia, the average household in Serbia had a monthly income of 109,136 dinars during 2025, while average personal consumption expenditure stood at 109,787 dinars. The average household consisted of 2.57 members.
This means that a loss of 5,000 dinars a month on betting would represent roughly 4.6 per cent of an average household’s monthly income, or 60,000 dinars a year. At 10,000 dinars a month, we are talking about 120,000 dinars a year – equivalent to approximately one full month of average household income. And 20,000 dinars a month translates to 240,000 dinars a year—more than two months of an average household’s total income.
For a family on an average income, this is not merely a matter of entertainment or personal choice. If betting money is taken from funds intended for food, utility bills, rent, mortgage repayments, children’s education, or savings, the consequences directly impact the entire household.
A particular issue arises when losses are no longer limited to the money a person actually possesses, giving way to borrowing, loans, and debts. As reported by Nova Ekonomija, it is precisely these consequences that are documented in testimonies collected in studies on problem gambling in Serbia.
The state profit vs the price of a ban
There is another side to the story. Games of chance are not only a profitable industry – they are also a major source of revenue for the state.
Data available from the Games of Chance Administration shows that in 2025 the state collected 28.08 billion dinars (approximately €240 million) from all fees associated with games of chance. Betting and online gaming alone generated around 13.85 billion dinars (roughly €118 million).
Consequently, any hypothetical complete ban on gambling would carry a clear fiscal cost. If only sports betting and online games were banned, the state would, based on 2025 revenue figures, lose around 13.85 billion dinars in annual fees, assuming that income were not offset by other taxes or alternative games of chance.
The equation therefore has two sides: on one hand is the state revenue of billions of dinars generated by the gambling industry, and on the other is the money citizens stake and lose, alongside the potential fallout of problem gambling on families.
For Serbia, the question is no longer just how much the state makes from gambling, but how high a price society pays for those who can no longer stop their losses.
(RTV, 01.10.2026)