During the 2023/2024 school year, the Who Actually Wins? program was successfully implemented in 20 high schools across Sarajevo Canton and Tuzla Canton. In Sarajevo Canton, ten high schools participated in the program: Fifth Gymnasium, High School of Electrical Engineering, Gymnasium Obala, High School of Medicine in Bjelava, Gymnasium Dobrinja, First Gymnasium, High School of Applied Arts, High School for Traffic and Communications, High School Center Hadžići, and High School of Graphic Technologies, Design and Multimedia. In Tuzla Canton, workshops were also conducted in ten schools, including: Mixed High School Banovići, Mixed High School Gračanica, Mixed High School Srebrenik, Mixed High School Živinice, Mixed High School of Mechanics Tuzla, Mixed High School Kalesija, Mixed High School Hasan Kikić Gradačac, Mixed High School Lukavac, Mixed High School of Traffic Tuzla, and Mixed High School of Electrical Engineering Tuzla.

A total of 1,407 first- and second-year students participated in the workshops, which aim to prevent gambling and promote responsible behavior towards games of chance. The workshops were led by trained facilitators specifically educated to implement this program.

In addition to the student workshops, the program also includes interactive lectures for parents and teachers. During the 2023/2024 school year, six roundtable discussions were also held for parents and teachers (three in Sarajevo Canton and three in Tuzla Canton), with the goal of involving all those who can contribute to solving or mitigating this issue.

Sanela Pekić, a specialist in school-based prevention programs at NARKO-NE and one of the licensed trainers of the program, shared her thoughts on the overall program:

The significant advantage of this program’s implementation is that it has become part of the Catalog of Special and Extracurricular Programs of the Institute for the Development of Pre-University Education of Sarajevo Canton, ensuring that the program is implemented with all first-year high school students in Sarajevo Canton. Only through a continuous and systematic approach to the prevention of gambling can we expect, in the long term, to reduce gambling and betting among young people.

Additionally, students Imran Bošnjak and Tarik Šalo shared their impressions after participating in the program:

We think that the workshop is a very interesting way to learn about the problems of gambling and its consequences. We learned about prevention and how to prevent addiction to betting. We worked in groups, which is a great way for us as a class to notice the consequences of gambling together. The teacher was kind and taught us in a very interesting way, which will stick with us.

The implementation of the program was supported by the Institute for Youth Development KULT, the Ministry of Education of Sarajevo Canton, the Institute for the Development of Pre-University Education of Sarajevo Canton, the Ministry of Education of Tuzla Canton, the Pedagogical Institute of Tuzla Canton, and the Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation of the University of Tuzla.

Anisa Čelik Raščić