The Finance Ministry is calling the bluff on internet gambling

Poland's current legislation on gambling dates back to 1992 and does not include the newest - and extremely popular - form of betting: internet gambling. As the new act on gambling was being worked out, it was proposed that internet gambling be legalized. However, the Ministry of Finance is now backing away from the idea. "It is unlikely that internet gambling will be legalized," Jakub Lutyka, the spokesmen of Ministry of Finance was quoted as saying in Polish daily Rzeczpospolita, which also cited Ministry sources stating that the current draft bill being considered does not foresee the legalization of online gambling.

According to the Ministry, the argument for not legalizing internet gambling is the high costs to the state which would result. According to the Ministry's analysis, any revenues from internet gambling would be much lower than expected, whereas the cost of regulating the industry would be too high.

However, experts disagree with this evaluation. "Legalization [of internet gambling] will lead to the increase of revenues to the state," said Marcin Peterlik from the Gdańsk Institute for Market Economics (IBnGR). "If nothing is done, internet gambling will operate in a legal loophole. The argument that the regulation of it would be too expensive is not convinciing." IBnGR estimates that legalization of the industry could bring more than zł.130 million to the Treasury from gambling taxes and another 12 million in income tax.

If the Ministry were to have a change of heart, there is the additional question as to exactly who would run the internet-gambling sites. The earlier version of the bill accounted for only state-run sites. "The possibility to legalize internet gambling organized by private company was never taken into account. We were only debating a state monopoly," Lutyk was quoted as saying.

However, the Ministry decided that this would not be a viable solution, since such a monopoly could run afoul of the European Court of Justice, which stated in 2003 that any operator of online gambling that has a license to operate in one EU country can offer its services anywhere in the bloc.

Currently a few internet bookmakers operate in Poland with headquarters abroad. They do not pay any administrative costs and are not regulated under Polish law. According to IBnGR, the revenue of internet gambling operators in Poland could reach as much as zł 1.3-1.5 billion.