Gambling companies not getting a fair shake from Finance Ministry

According to the representatives of the companies united in the Operators and Producers of Entertaining Equipment Chamber of Commerce (IGPOUR), the Ministry clerks supervising their companies make their operations more difficult and thus make the state budget and the companies earn less. Most of the blame went to Marek Oleszczuk, head of the Ministry's department responsible for gambling. "Dealing with formalities in the Finance Ministry is a nightmare. Document circulation takes up to several months there," said Michael Dominik, IGPOUR spokesperson. According to the gambling companies, the delays caused a situation where instead of 50,000 gambling machines there will be only 7,000 of them operating by the end of the year. The companies also accuse the Ministry of introducing new favorable laws too slowly. Nevertheless, their revenue from gambling increased in 2003 by 5% to the level of zł.4.5 billion. The only gambling group with a lower income was bingo halls. They posted 21.4% less revenue. (Rzeczpospolita, p. B1) D.W.