Poker in Serbia: licensed online poker, the tax rule and the players

Serbia is one of the few countries in the region with a working licensed online market — and a rule most players elsewhere would envy: winnings from licensed games are not taxed at all.

The legal position

Gambling in Serbia is governed by the Law on Games of Chance (Official Gazette 18/2020, amended 94/2024) and regulated by the **Games of Chance Administration**, a unit of the Ministry of Finance.

Online poker is licensed here, as a category of "special games of chance" — player-versus-player gaming has its own place in the framework rather than being folded into online casino. Licensees need technical infrastructure physically located in Serbia and accessible to the regulator.

The barrier is on the operator side, not the player's. A foreign company cannot hold a Serbian licence directly; it must establish a Serbian legal entity, put up capital of around €250,000 and pay substantial monthly fees. That is why the domestic licensed market is small and most Serbian players use international sites.

The minimum age is 18, strictly enforced with identity verification.

The tax rule worth knowing

Lottery winnings above roughly €1,200 attract 20% personal income tax. **Winnings from licensed special games of chance and licensed remote gambling are exempt.** For a poker player using a licensed operator, that is as clean a position as exists anywhere in Europe.

That exemption attaches to licensed games. It is one of the few concrete reasons to prefer a licensed room over an offshore one, and it is worth checking an operator's status before assuming it applies. General information, not tax advice.

The players

Serbia's record is disproportionate to its size. Andjelko Andrejevic tops the list with $7.27m, an APPT Macau Super High Roller title and a 2025 WSOP bracelet. Danilo Velasevic is 191st in the world and a Triton regular, with $1,825,600 for second at Triton Jeju in March 2026 — and he still lives in Belgrade.

Luka Bojovic finished **fifth in the 2025 WSOP Main Event for $2,400,000**, the best Serbian result in the tournament's history, and Milos Skrbic was ninth in 2019 for $1,000,000. Two Main Event final tables from one small country in six years is not a coincidence.