Gambling addiction help in Slovenia

Verified helplines

Helplines and online chat

MladiHazarder.si is Slovenia's dedicated gambling help portal and has run since 2012. Its confidential line, 040 88 99 18, is open every working day from 10:00 to 15:00. The same service offers live chat, SMS and email at pomoc@mladihazarder.si. All of it is free ("popolnoma brezplačne"), in Slovenian.

The portal also hosts a self-assessment test, a calculator for what gambling has cost you, and the Re.Start web app for cutting down or stopping. If you want a second opinion first, our gambling self-test takes a couple of minutes, and lines in other countries are listed in the helplines directory.

Self-exclusion

Slovenia's self-exclusion scheme is called samoprepoved and sits in Article 9 of the Games of Chance Act (Zakon o igrah na srečo). You sign a written statement asking to be barred from gambling for a minimum of six months and a maximum of three years. It is free, and the form is published by FURS.

You have to do it in person

Unlike the online registers in Croatia, Latvia or Lithuania, Slovenian samoprepoved cannot be filed from home. FURS is explicit that the supervisory authority itself cannot start the procedure for you: you must go in person to a casino or gaming salon and complete the written statement there. Staff check your identity, and the operator sends the statement to FURS, which forwards it to every casino and gaming salon in Slovenia by the next working day.

What it covers, and what it does not

The exclusion is valid across the whole territory of Slovenia, and the Act states that Article 9 applies to online games of chance as well. FURS keeps the register of people who have given a samoprepoved statement, and the data is held for one year after the exclusion ends.

It cannot be undone early

The law says plainly that during the period of samoprepoved the player cannot revoke the statement. FURS repeats this in its published Q&A: there is no early-cancellation procedure at all. Choose the length with that in mind — six months is the floor, three years the ceiling.

Slovenia has no bilateral agreement extending samoprepoved to casinos in neighbouring countries, so a statement signed in Slovenia does not bar you from Austrian or Italian venues. Our guide to self-exclusion by country covers how to register in each of them separately.

Blocking gambling payments and sites

Because samoprepoved reaches Slovenian concessionaires, sites licensed abroad stay open to you. FURS can act against them at the network level: when it finds games of chance being organised without a permit or concession, it issues a decision prohibiting the activity, and if an online operator ignores that decision FURS can ask a court to order internet providers to restrict access to the site.

That process takes time and only covers sites FURS has caught, so the practical second layer is a blocker on your own devices. Our comparison of gambling blocking apps for iOS and Android sets out what each one actually stops.

Free treatment and counselling

MladiHazarder.si provides free psychotherapy for people with gambling problems in Ljubljana and Maribor, arranged through the portal. The same team runs the phone, chat and email service, so the first call can lead straight into therapy without a referral.

The portal also publishes a downloadable guide for families and the Re.Start self-help application for people who want to cut down before committing to therapy.

Support for family and friends

The MladiHazarder.si line, chat and email are open to relatives as well as to people who gamble, and the portal publishes a family guide you can read before saying anything.

One thing Slovenian law does not allow: you cannot arrange a samoprepoved for someone else. FURS states that the person must appear in person and complete the statement themselves, and that no power of attorney substitutes for that. What is left to a family member is persuasion and practical support — our articles on helping someone with a gambling addiction and the signs of a gambling problem cover both.

Gambling law and the regulator

Gambling is regulated by the Games of Chance Act and supervised by the Financial Administration of the Republic of Slovenia (Finančna uprava Republike Slovenije, FURS). Organising games of chance is an exclusive right of the state and may only be carried out under a permit or concession.

Online gambling is legal only for companies that already hold a concession for classic games or for special games in a casino, and the specific online game must be named in the concession agreement with the Finance Ministry. Participation in online games of chance is allowed only from the age of 18, and entry to a casino is likewise limited to people aged at least 18.