April 8 (SeeNews) - Montenegro's gambling revenue, including casinos, betting houses, slot-machine clubs and internet betting, increased 58.5% on the year to 6.5 million euro ($7.0 million) in the first quarter of 2024, the finance ministry said.
The rise in revenue came as a result of regulatory changes that took effect at the beginning of this year, rather than growth of betting volumes, the finance ministry said in a statement last week.
"On the contrary, the adopted measures resulted in abolishing certain types of betting that are considered risky and were not adequately regulated against money laundering," the ministry said.
As part of the new legal measures, Montenegro for the first time imposed mandatory payment of a variable fee for internet betting, as well as a fixed fee depending on the type of gaming organised via the internet.
As a result, revenue from internet betting alone jumped to 2.2 million euro in January-March, from just 380,000 euro in the like period of last year, the ministry noted, adding that in full year 2023, internet betting revenue came in at some 1.5 million euro.
($ = 0.922 euro)