Gambling - coming to a computer screen near you

Internet gambling and betting is still illegal in Poland, as Polish gambling legislation has not been updated since 1992. According to a report published by the Gdańsk Institute of Market Economics (IBnGR), the government is tackling the issue but it wants to keep the profits for itself. The new proposals will allow online gambling, but only government enterprises will be able to offer the service.

Bohdan Wyżnikiewicz from IBnGR says that the institute's report shows that the government could gain significant profits from taxing online betting and gambling companies. "After the legalization of internet gambling, taxes could grow from zł.281 million to over zł.426 million," he says.

Wyżnikiewicz also points out that a state monopoly on online gambling would be against EU regulations. In 2003, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) said every EU state has the right to implement limitations on internet gambling, but only if those limitations are applied to every company, despite their ownership status or country of origin.

Kuba Lutyk from the Ministry of Finance told the Polish Press Agency that the legalization of online gambling as well as the government monopoly is one of a considerable number of options in an amendment that is being prepared by the Ministry of Finance.

In the meantime, TNS OBOP has presented a poll that shows 42 percent of potential users of internet gambling are against the government monopoly, 26 percent are in favor, and 36 percent had no opinion.