Obtaining a gambling license in Montenegro — requirements and documents, licensing gambling activities | Law&Trust International

Gambling license in Montenegro

Montenegro is a country where most of the casinos are located in crowded places, for example, in hotels. The state has a special Gambling Law that regulates the rights and obligations of gambling establishments.
Casinos receive great development support, which is why they have the opportunity to provide large prizes in lotteries and other types of gambling.

A license for gambling in Montenegro is necessary for every entrepreneur who is going to establish a gambling business in the real or virtual world.
Online rooms can cover players from different countries, however, if they are under the jurisdiction of Montenegro, then the rules of the country must be respected by both the owner of the casino and its customers.

The Montenegrin Gambling Law allows online gambling, that is, the provision of gambling via the Internet or other telecommunications facilities. In this case, you need to get a special license for online games. However, a license can only be issued to an operator who already owns a license for any type of land-based gambling. Thus, an online license is kind of an extension of an existing license, not a separate license.

The license for online games does not distinguish between the types of online games, therefore, it allows to organize any games, regardless of the main type of the ground license. Thus, the license for online games issued to the owner of any type of license for land-based gambling entitles its owner to offer a full range of online games, such as sports betting, casino games, slot machines, bingo games, fantasy sports, etc. without restrictions on their type and quantity.

Authorization (license) for casinos in Montenegro

In order to obtain license for conducting gambling activities, it is necessary to go through several preliminary stages of preparation, namely:

1. Establish LLC in the territory of a given state. The company should be registered under all the rules of the law, and company registration service is also available in the company Law&Trust.
2. Open account in the bank and receive extract from the bank for confirming own solvency and further contributing funds for preparation and consideration of the application.
3. Compile and file the application for registration of new casino in the jurisdiction of Montenegro.

Our specialist collect the package of documents, and the completed forms are dispatched to the Games of Chance Administration of the country which representatives take decide on issuing license for casino in Montenegro.

Application requirements

  • A general condition for any operator is that it is registered in Montenegro in the form of a limited liability company or joint-stock company. Additional specific requirements, such as the minimum share capital, the size of the mandatory bank guarantee for payment of fees and winnings, or staffing requirements, are established separately for each type of license and are described below.

Bookmaker license

  • Montenegrin legislation does not allow betting on the results of political elections, and the owners or shareholders of sports clubs cannot simultaneously be suppliers of sports betting on the results of the sport in which their club plays, or on the results in the league in which their club competes. The validity period of a betting license is three years but it can be extended for another two years using a simple procedure. Operators must have a separate license for each betting office they have. All bookmakers must be connected via the Internet to the controller system.

    When applying for a bookmaker license, confirmation of payment of minimum share capital of EUR 75,000 is required, as well as confirmation of a bank deposit or bank guarantee of EUR 30,000 (as a guarantee for payment of fees and winnings).

Slot machines license

  • This license applies to real slot machines installed in designated premises. The term of this license is three years, with the right to renew the license for another two years. In exceptional cases, a separate license for slot machines is not required when they are offered at the casino since the casino license also includes slot machines.

    To obtain a license for a slot machine, the company must meet the minimum requirements for the authorized capital in the amount of 75,000 euros, as well as the size of the bank deposit or bank guarantee - it should be 25,000 euros (as a guarantee for payment of fees and winnings).

Casinos

  • In Montenegro, it is allowed to organize a casino but the total number of casinos is currently limited to eight. A license is obtained only through an open tender announced by the government (launching a tender requires prior government initiative). Such a license is issued for ten years and can be extended for another five years. As stated above, a casino license also includes the right to offer slot machines.

    The conditions that the interested party must comply with, the documents that must be provided with the application, as well as the criteria for issuing a license for a casino are determined in the public tender.

    However, the requirements for the size of the authorized capital (300 000 euros), as well as the size of the bank deposit or bank guarantee (90 000 euros, as a guarantee for the payment of fees and winnings) remain unchanged.

Bingo license

  • The bingo license, which also includes the organization of tombola and television tombola, is issued for a period of three years, which can then be extended for two years.
    To obtain a bingo license, the minimum authorized capital of a company must be 75,000 euros. The company must also have a bank deposit or a bank guarantee in the amount of 10,000 euros (as a guarantee for payment of fees and winnings).

Online games license

  • The only requirement for obtaining a license for online games is that the operator already should already have one of the types of on-land licenses, and therefore, an application for an online license will be a simple request without additional documents.
    Application requirements related to directors, owners, or senior management are very small and are limited only to casinos. It is required that authorized representatives (including directors and any other persons entitled to represent the company) of the casino are not convicted of economic crimes. In addition, there must be evidence that the staff is properly trained to work in the casino.

Documents required when applying for a license

  • Confirmation of company registration;
  • Memorandum of association;
  • Three-year business plan;
  • Evidence that the company’s managers were not convicted of economic crimes and that there is no such criminal prosecution at the moment;
  • Confirmation of ownership or the right to use the office space (for land licenses);
  • Rules and description of games;
  • Proof of payment of minimum share capital;
  • Evidence of compliance with specifications;
  • Confirmation of bank deposit or bank guarantee;
  • Confirmation of payment of the administrative fee.

Taxation

  • The single corporate income tax rate is 9% and is not levied on the cash flow of the bookmaker.

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