How to get a gambling licence in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Each entity regulates its own market. The state level legislates only on VAT, anti-money-laundering, payments supervision, competition and data protection.

• There is no separate advertising regulator: the games-law authorities enforce the advertising rules, and for broadcast the state Communications Regulatory Agency (RAK) applies its Code in all three entities.
• Anti-money-laundering supervision is split by entity: the Federal Administration for Inspection Affairs in FBiH, RUIS in RS and the Directorate for Finance in BD.

Laws that apply

• FBiH: Zakon o igrama na sreću (Law on Games of Chance), SN FBiH 48/15 and correction 60/15; Pravilnik o tehničkim uslovima, sadržaju pravila i procedura i načinu priređivanja internet igara na sreću (Internet Rulebook), SN FBiH 59/16, supplemented 23/24
• RS: Zakon o igrama na sreću, SG RS 22/19, amended by SG RS 131/20; Pravilnik o priređivanju internet igara na sreću, SG RS 45/19 (amended 64/19, 104/19); Pravilnik o primjeni standarda odgovornog priređivanja, SG RS 89/20; Katalog igara na sreću, with supplements to SG RS 71/26
• BD: Zakon o igrama na sreću Brčko distrikta BiH, SG BD 6/22, amended by SG BD 24/22, 24/24 and 27/25
• State level, not gambling-specific: Law on the Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing, SG BiH 13/24; VAT Act, SG BiH 9/05; RAK Code on Commercial Communications (24 February 2023)

The three licences are not interchangeable. FBiH bans collecting stakes on its territory for foreign games or games of another entity or the District, and RS and BD ban internet operators from abroad. Whether an operator licensed in another entity counts as “from abroad” under the RS and BD bans is not stated in either Act.

The registers do not list products; the laws fix what may be offered online. Operators’ own sites show more than FBiH law allows its approved operators.

In all three entities the holder is a legal person seated in that entity. No text accepts a branch or permanent establishment of a foreign company, and no text treats an EU or EEA company differently from any other.

• A foreign company, EU or non-EU, takes part only by incorporating a company in the Federation, in RS or in the District; foreign ownership of that company is not barred in the three Acts.
• Whether capital must be paid up is not stated for the online approvals; FBiH asks for proof of payment of the cash part for the casino company alone.
• No Act lists an ultimate-beneficial-owner declaration; the state anti-money-laundering law applies to operators as obliged persons.
• No text states how many brands, domains or websites one licence may cover. RS and BD require the operator to provide an internet domain, and each site shows the licence or approval number.

Capital, guarantee and fee add up for each game an operator offers. The table gives the fees stated in the laws for starting an online betting business, with our arithmetic.

• No separate application fee is named in any of the three Acts: the licence fee is paid before or with the request and its proof is attached.
• No annual licence fee is named for online operations: the fee is paid at issue and renewal (FBiH) or once (RS, BD).
• No levy for responsible gambling is imposed on the operator; the public authority allocates fee revenue, partly to addiction treatment and prevention.
• Certification and technical inspection are at the operator’s cost. In RS the technical inspection of internet-game technology costs KM 1,400 the first time and KM 1,000 each later time.

Each Act provides for a request to the licensing authority and sends procedural questions to the general administrative-procedure law (in BD, to the Law on the Tax Administration). None states a filing channel or a prescribed form, and none sets an application window for first-time online approvals.

• The games laws set no decision deadline of their own: the procedure laws fix 30 to 60 days in FBiH, one to two months in RS (original text) and 15 to 30 days in BD.
• Grounds for refusal follow from a missing condition; RS adds an assessment of business record, solvency, tax compliance, saturation of the offer and fit with the tourist offer.
• The RS licence decision is final and open to no administrative appeal; in BD an appeal lies to the Appellate Commission within 15 days; the FBiH Act names no appeal body for a Ministry refusal.
• No general pre-licensing approval exists; the Ministry’s consent attaches to specific steps, such as game rules in FBiH or the computer system in RS.

Server, hardware or computer system must be on the territory of the entity (BD: Bosnia and Herzegovina), and no instrument mentions cloud hosting. Because the hardware must be owned by the operator in all three, a provider-owned cloud does not meet the ownership rule as written.

• No named game-testing standard appears in any entity; RS and BD name ISO/IEC 17025 for the testing laboratories, and FBiH names no standard.
• No RTP floor or ceiling, stake or jackpot cap, minimum spin time, autoplay or bonus-buy rule is set for online games. The only RTP figure is for land-based machines.
• No geolocation duty is placed on the operator, and no local top-level domain is prescribed.
• Accepted laboratories are those each entity authorises or recognises: the FMF names five for machines and RNG, the RS Ministry five (four within their printed validity on 27 October 2026), the BD Directorate four on its notice of 21 August 2026.

There is no state-level gambling tax: each entity charges an operator fee under its own games law. The date in BD’s Art. 114a, 116a and 116b moved from two years after SG BD 24/22 entered into force, to 31 July 2025, then to 31 July 2027.

• Only RS addresses bonuses: a promotional bonus counts as a payment in the game and is deducted from a winning made with it, and nothing lets an operator deduct bonuses or jackpots from the fee base.
• No advertising or sponsorship tax and no extra contribution beyond the fees is imposed on the operator.

The minimum gambling age is 18 in all three entities, and online play is covered expressly.

• No national self-exclusion register exists, so self-exclusion is a programme each operator runs and does not apply across operators.
• No independent ADR provider is required; in RS, RUIS inspectors must take up players’ requests and reports.
• Player funds: FBiH requires separate bank accounts, and in all three the money on the operator’s account must at least equal the total on players’ virtual accounts.
• Cards are named as a payment method in RS and BD; cryptocurrency is not mentioned in any instrument.

All three entities ban advertising of operators without an approval or licence, and of foreign games or tickets. Television, radio and online advertising by approved operators is permitted, with children’s-media limits.

• Broadcast: gambling advertising may not be shown in the 15 minutes before, during and 15 minutes after a children’s programme (RAK Code); no watershed applies.
• BD: every advertisement other than a display of the operator’s logo or trade mark carries the notice of the ban on minors, the addiction warning and the statement that playing is not a reasonable strategy for financial gain.
• RS: the responsible-gaming Rulebook bars advertising aimed at vulnerable groups or at persons below the legal age and advertising that suggests gambling is a reasonable strategy for financial gain, and asks for a responsible-gaming message and the helpline number where appropriate.
• FBiH: advertisements are barred in children’s and youth media, including internet portals aimed at them; the warnings sit on the operator’s website.
• No rule covers sports sponsorship, influencers, affiliates or social media as such; the general bans apply to them.

The state AML/CFT Law (SG BiH 13/24, in force 27 February 2024) makes a games-of-chance organiser an obliged person in all three entities. Game organisers had to comply by 27 August 2024.

• Registration on an electronic betting platform triggers identification, verification and monitoring whatever the stake; any in-game transaction of KM 2,000 or more, single or linked, triggers identification and monitoring.
• Any suspicion, whatever the amount, is reported to the financial intelligence unit before the transaction, or at the latest the next working day where that is impossible; cash transactions of KM 30,000 or more go within three days.
• Customer and transaction records are kept for ten years from the end of the relationship, transaction or identification.
• No local money-laundering reporting officer is required: an authorised person and deputies are appointed and notified to the unit within eight days, with no residence or seat requirement.

No B2B operating licence exists in any entity. A supplier is bound through what the operator’s software and hardware must satisfy, and suppliers appear as approved or authorised bodies.

• Software must be made by a company registered under the software-production law and certified by an authorised laboratory; the maker’s sworn statement of no hidden functions goes with the operator’s application.
• Laboratories and technical-inspection bodies are authorised by the regulator (five-year terms in RS and BD); in RS, payment intermediaries need Ministry approval, with a seat in RS and at least KM 5,000,000 of turnover in gambling payment mediation.
• No supplier register, no affiliate or marketing-agency licence and no recognition of a foreign supplier licence exists; foreign test evidence is accepted through recognised or authorised laboratories.
• No gambling-specific tax falls on supplier revenue; all three entities withhold 10% on payments to foreign legal persons for royalties and for management and consulting services, unless a double-taxation treaty lowers it.

FBiH and RS publish PDF registers and BD publishes none. No entity publishes a list of suspended or revoked approvals.

• The FBiH Tax Administration reported on 2 April 2026 that it ran 1,062 inspections of betting operators in March 2026, with misdemeanour orders in 241 and fines totalling KM 949,550.
• Only RS has a written site-blocking and payment-blocking rule: the Ministry sends banks a list of sites whose payments they may not execute and starts a procedure to block access in RS.
• RS makes unauthorised organisation of prohibited games a crime (Criminal Code Art. 368, fine or prison up to one year); no equivalent offence appears in the FBiH or BD criminal-code texts cited.
• The revocation grounds run to 12 in FBiH, 8 in RS and 13 in BD, among them false data, unpaid public revenue or winnings, obstructing supervision and capital not maintained.

The route in the order the three Acts set, entity by entity. Start by choosing the entity, because capital, guarantee, tax and server location all follow from it.

1. 01

   Choose the entity and the product

   FBiH: betting only; RS: Catalogue games; BD: underlying game plus internet approval

   Pick the entity from the “Choosing an entity” table. An online casino or slots operator needs RS or BD; in FBiH only betting operators with at least 50 payment points can hold the internet approval.

2. 02

   Incorporate a company in that entity

   KM 1,500,000 (FBiH) or KM 1,000,000 (RS) capital

   The holder must be a legal person seated in the entity. A foreign branch is not accepted. BD sets capital for the underlying game: betting KM 100,000, casino KM 1,000,000.

3. 03

   Certify the software and place the server

   before filing

   Obtain the certificate for the internet system from a recognised body (FBiH) or an authorised laboratory (RS, BD), and host the server and data in the entity, or in Bosnia and Herzegovina for BD.

4. 04

   File the request with the authority

   no application window; no games-law deadline

   Send the request to the Federal Ministry of Finance, the RS Ministry of Finance or the BD Tax Administration, with the documents listed for your entity and proof of the licence fee.

5. 05

   Pay the fee and lodge the guarantee

   KM 150,000 or KM 300,000; guarantee by entity

   The internet fee is KM 150,000 in FBiH and KM 300,000 in RS; BD has none for the internet approval itself. The guarantee is KM 800,000 in FBiH, KM 200,000 in BD and 25% of planned annual fee costs in RS.

6. 06

   Operate: monthly fee, reports and renewal

   5% FBiH, 20% RS, KM 1,500 a month per seat in BD

   Pay the operator fee monthly and send the reports each entity requires. Renew at least 30 days before expiry in FBiH and BD, or six months in RS, and display the licence or approval number on the website.

Tier-ordered: official government first, then practitioner, then trade media. Every primary figure was read from the in-force text on 27 Oct 2026.