The Polish government is looking at putting in place new anti-gambling laws targeting both online and terrestrial games.
Draft legislation is to be put before Parliament as early as next week and the driving force behind it is Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who seems committed to reducing the prevalence of gambling generally in Poland.
'We want to see this market shrink by 20 to 25 percent per year. Over the course of five years this kind of gambling should disappear from Poland.' said Tusk in a press statement last week.
In his sights are most forms of gambling including one armed bandits, casinos and various forms of online gambling. The moves to ban online gambling will likely be accompanied by monitoring measures of ISP's and their support of online gambling domains. The role played by payment facilitators will likely also be scrutinized.
Some speculate that the sudden crackdown on gambling is politically motivated. A number of Polish politicians including Minister Of Sport, Miroslaw Drzewiecki, Andrzej Czuma, Minister Of Justice and Grzegorz Schetyna, Interior Minister and Deputy Prime Minister were all forced to resign in the wake of a betting scandal. Some believe Tusk is seeking to distance himself from any gambling connections.
Regardless of motives, it seems the legal gambling landscape in Poland is set of a shakeup.
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