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Published 23 April, in force from 1 May

What NN 72/25 brought and how long its deadlines run

The amendment was published on 23 April 2025, and its article 21 ties the start of application to the eighth day from the gazette, that is to 1 May 2025. Transitional article 19 sets 3 further deadlines, one of which has already been met.

Ten operators with no Croatian approval. The columns are copied out of the register of the body that issued the licence and out of the operator’s own terms. A blank cell means we did not read it — never zero, and never "no limit".
CasinoLicenceCompanyThreshold for checksOpen
VaveCuraçao Gaming AuthorityLatcas B.V.at discretionOpen
Vave pays for the single link that leaves this site, and that is the whole of our commercial relationship with it. Its sportsbook and its casino sit on one account, so the same money covers both without a second stake — uncommon among operators that advertise themselves as crypto casinos. We read the licence number ourselves on 2 September 2026 in the Curaçao Gaming Authority register: OGL/2024/1676/0905, held by Latcas B.V., issued 19 May 2025, status active.
RocketpotCuracaoDanneskjold Ventures B.V.US$2,500Read
Bitcasino.ioCuraçao Gaming AuthorityMoon Technologies B.V.2,500 EURRead
Wild FortuneAnjouan Gaming BoardMetlait SRLat discretionRead
DuckDiceAnjouan Gaming BoardZentari Limitadaat discretionRead
Empire.ioAnjouan Gaming BoardPixel Entertainment Limited2,000 USDTRead
MetaspinsCuraçao Gaming Authority3-102-959384 SRLat discretionRead
RainbetAnjouan Gaming BoardRBGAMING N.V.at discretionRead
ShuffleCuraçao Gaming AuthorityNatural Nine B.V.at discretionRead
Wild.ioCuraçao Gaming AuthorityStack Gaming Ltd.at discretionRead

A number, a date and one sentence

The header of the consolidated Gaming Act lists the issues of Narodne novine it is built from: 87/09, 35/13, 158/13, 41/14, 143/14, 114/22 and 72/25. Beside them stands the marking “na snazi od 01.05.2025.” — in force from 1 May 2025.

The last number in that run is the amendment published on 23 April 2025. Its article 21 reads:

“Ovaj Zakon stupa na snagu osmoga dana od dana objave u »Narodnim novinama«.”

This Act enters into force on the eighth day after publication in the official gazette.

The eighth day from 23 April falls on 1 May, which matches the marking in the consolidated text. That arithmetic is worth doing yourself, because summaries often give the date of entry as the date of publication.

The difference is a week and in practice rarely changes anything, but it shows how the mistake that is then copied onward arises: somebody read the header of the publication rather than its last article.

The amending Act to the Croatian Gaming Act in the official gazette Narodne novine
The official gazette itself, not a copy of it. This is where article 21 stands — „Ovaj Zakon stupa na snagu osmoga dana od dana objave u »Narodnim novinama«”, the Act enters into force on the eighth day after publication in the gazette — which is where the date 1 May 2025 comes from, together with transitional article 19 and its three deadlines.

Seven numbers in the header of the Act

The run in the header is not decoration but a short history of the market, and it is worth reading as one.

The base text carries the mark 87/09, that is the year 2009. Two amendments follow in 2013 and two in 2014, then a gap of eight years to 114/22, and finally 72/25.

The rhythm is uneven, then: two years of dense intervention, a long quiet stretch, then two interventions in three years. The 2025 amendment is the third in that newer wave and the first to write into the Act a fine addressed to a natural person outside the role of organiser.

What did not change in that run matters just as much. The mechanism for acquiring the right in article 3 and the exclusive right in article 9 have stood from the beginning, and none of the seven numbers in the header touched them; they are set out on the page about Hrvatska Lutrija.

Three deadlines from the transitional article

Transitional article 19 splits the duties into two groups, with two different dates.

By 1 January 2026 operators must align their business with article 49, paragraph 1, that is with the identification of players at betting counters and terminals. The same date applies to the provisions on advertising and responsible organising in articles 67 and 67.b to 67.d.

By 30 June 2026 the Croatian Institute of Public Health must establish the self-exclusion register under article 67.e, paragraph 6.

The second deadline has in practice already been met, and well before it expired: according to the Institute’s own page, the register began operating on 1 August 2025. A deadline and a start of operation are two separate facts, and we keep them that way; the entry procedure is described on the page about the register of excluded players.

Instructions from the Croatian Institute of Public Health on filing a self-exclusion request
On this page the Institute states that the register of excluded players began operating on 1 August 2025. The statutory deadline in transitional article 19, paragraph 4 was 30 June 2026, so these are two separate dates. The request goes through the hana.hzjz.hr portal with an e-Građani login, and the Institute’s free line is 0800 2000 70, weekdays from 9 to 16.

The advertising fine, the novelty in the same amendment

Article 73 gained a paragraph addressing a natural person outside the role of organiser.

A fine of 3,980 to 6,630 euros is set for a natural person who advertises games of chance: on the internet, in audiovisual and radio programmes, in electronic editions, in print or on publicly accessible surfaces.

Its scope is wider than it looks at first glance, because it also reaches content authors and streamers, that is people who show a game to their audience. Both paragraphs of the same article, with their ranges and with the distinction from taking part, are set out on the page about the fine for advertising.

Five places of publication in the new paragraph

The advertising fine is tied not to one medium but to a list of them, and that list is worth having in view.

It contains the internet, audiovisual and radio programmes, electronic editions, print and publicly accessible surfaces. The first item is the widest and covers publication that is not experienced as an advertisement: a recording of play, a recommendation in a comment, a screen showing a win.

Because of that first item the provision reaches content authors and streamers, people with no role at all in organising a game. The consequence is visible in Croatian texts about gambling, from which offer amounts and promo codes have disappeared; why there are none here either sits on the page about the no-deposit bonus.

How to check that amendment yourself

The procedure takes about ten minutes and requires nothing but two open documents.

  1. Open the publication in Narodne novine under number 72 of 2025 and find its last article, the one on entry into force.
  2. Count eight days from the date of publication. The eighth day is the date of application, and here that is 1 May 2025.
  3. Compare the date you get with the marking in the header of the consolidated text of the Act. If they diverge, trust the official gazette rather than the consolidated version.
  4. Return to the transitional provisions of the same publication and copy the deadlines with their paragraph numbers. Without a paragraph number a deadline cannot later be checked.

That procedure separates three dates that summaries usually merge into one: the day of publication, the day of entry into force and the deadline for alignment. Why we record a date of reading beside every claim is described in reading documents.

What the amendment did not change

The way the right to an online casino is acquired stayed as it was. Article 35, paragraph 2 still ties it to a company that already holds the right to organise in a casino on premises, so even after 2025 a foreign operator has no procedure to enter. The mechanism is described on the page about who holds an approval.

The basis for blocking addresses is unchanged too. A blocking order still rests on the General Tax Act rather than on the gaming one, as the page about the list of blocked addresses shows.

And the allocation of responsibility in article 49, paragraph 3 remains: enforcement of the prohibitions rests with the operator. The provision in the other statute, punishing gambling in a public place, gained no new reach in this amendment either, which the page about gambling in a public place covers.