Croatia Warned of Economic Impact from Gambling Law Reforms

Croatia plans to update its gambling laws for the first time in over a decade. The proposed changes aim to reduce advertising, tighten licensing, and place limits on player incentives. On paper, these reforms should reduce risk for players. But the moment they were introduced, the industry pushed back, not on principle, but on economics. You’re not hearing a debate about safety. You’re hearing concerns about what happens when betting stops being profitable at scale.

Why Croatia’s New Gambling Laws Are Causing Panic Behind the Scenes

The Ministry of Finance has proposed new regulatory rules for both online and retail gambling operations in Croatia. The draft includes reduced operating hours for betting shops, advertising restrictions (especially for sports and youth content), and tighter bonus conditions at online casino sites in 2026. A central monitoring system for betting data is also being considered.

The stated goal is public protection. But local operator groups, sports federations, and some economists say the reforms could hurt the economy. They argue that lower betting activity will reduce tax revenue, cut jobs, and undermine sponsorships for clubs and leagues.

From the outside, this sounds like a standard regulatory risk assessment. But what you’re not being told is that many of these “losses” only exist because players are consistently spending more than they win. The model relies on it.

Croatia Wants Safer Gambling, But Hasn’t Built the Safety Net Yet

While the government’s intentions are clear, the structural support isn’t. Croatia has no national responsible gambling framework. There’s no official helpline for gambling harm, no centralised exclusion system, and no publicly funded education campaign to help players understand how risk works in practice. In the opposite direction, we’ve seen situations in which casinos choose to exit a whole market due to stricter restrictions, like Bet365 exiting China.

Operators may offer individual tools like deposit limits or self-exclusion. But without a central system that tracks behaviour across platforms, these tools only go so far.

At the time of writing, there’s no confirmed plan to expand support services alongside the legal reforms. That creates a problem. You may be told regulation is changing, but if the underlying system isn’t built to support safer behaviour, the risks remain.

Sources

1. https://sbcnews.co.uk/latestnews/2025/03/31/croatia-hupis-job-losses/#:~:text=The%20trade%20body%20predicts%20that,and%20weaken%20consumer%20protection%20standards.
2. https://sbcnews.co.uk/europe/2025/04/15/croatia-reforms-europe/