Outlook: What is coming?

The November 2024 amending law to the Law on Games of Chance continues to phase in through 2025 and into 2026 via a series of secondary-legislation deadlines rather than further primary legislative change. Key dates include the 1 January 2026 deadline for the increased special-purpose deposit (EUR 300,000 to EUR 500,000) and for the mandatory top-up cooperation arrangement, and the 1 July 2026 deadline for physical separation of gaming floors from food and drink service areas. No further legislative reform beyond this implementation wave was identified. Operators should treat the turn of 2026 as the point at which the bulk of the amending law's financial and payments obligations become binding, with the mid-2026 premises-layout deadline following shortly after.

No new draft amendment or consultation was identified for Serbia's gambling regime this cycle. The operative forward-looking story is the staged commencement of the existing 94/2024 amendment: minors-related provisions are scheduled to take effect around 6 January 2026, and an alcohol-service ban follows on 1 July 2026, alongside the December 2025-May 2026 wave of implementing bylaws already discussed under Licensing & Regulation and Technical Compliance. This is confirmed, material forward movement even though no genuinely new policy proposal has emerged: the reform horizon for Serbia in this cycle is defined by the tail of an existing amendment working its way into force rather than by any fresh initiative.

The most significant item on Serbia's reform horizon is an advertising-law amendment proposal that would impose a watershed advertising ban between 06:00 and 23:00 together with a sponsorship ban. Its status remains at the proposal stage according to the most recent secondary commentary reviewed this cycle, and no primary text of the draft bill was located, leaving its trajectory uncertain. Separately, the pattern of the 2025 capital-requirement increase and the 2026 secondary-legislation cycle on jackpots and technical testing suggests the Ministry of Finance retains an appetite for further tightening of the Games of Chance Law, though no specific additional proposal beyond the advertising amendment was sourced this cycle. Resolution of the advertising proposal's legislative status is the single clearest signal to watch for a shift in the market-entry calculus.

Three legislative threads are under active parliamentary consideration in Serbia this cycle. Anti-illegal-gambling amendments to the Law on Games of Chance are advancing alongside a package of advertising restrictions that would introduce a 06:00-to-23:00 broadcast watershed together with a sponsorship ban and a role-model advertising ban. Separately, an NSD-backed proposal for a mandatory 80-metre distance between new betting venues remains alive in parliament despite the government's public opposition to it in July 2026. All three items carry fragile-to-probable confidence at this stage, reflecting their status as draft or proposed measures rather than enacted law. Their progress — particularly the advertising package, which would be the first material marketing restriction identified in this monitoring line — is the principal driver of near-term regulatory change to watch.