Poland is one of the European countries where gambling is legalized. However, the gambling situation here is rather complicated.
Poland offers its citizens and foreigners a variety of entertainment: from traditional casinos with slot machines, poker and roulette tables to bookmakers with bets on sports, political events or any competition. As in many countries of the world, online casinos are especially popular here, because they are available anywhere and allow you to use different payment systems. Since you can find the most popular online casinos in Poland at https://polskiekasyno71.com/, in this article we will tell you a bit more about the whole gambling market.
Hard Laws
A feature of the gambling business in Poland is strict legislation related to scandals from the country’s past.
In 2009, the media learned that some government officials, parliamentarians and persons associated with the gambling business are carrying out illegal activities aimed at influencing political decisions to regulate the gambling market. As a result, there were large-scale resignations and layoffs.
At the same time, a new law on gambling was introduced in Poland. Here are the most important changes:
- Limiting the number of casinos depending on the number of residents of the city. If the population is 250 thousand, then there can be only 1 casino. It is also forbidden to open gambling establishments near schools, churches and other public places.
- Control over advertising of gaming services – there are restrictions on advertising gambling in the media and on the streets.
- All gambling businesses must be registered and pay taxes.
- There is also a limit on the number of slot machines in the casino.
- We strengthened control over the activities of gaming companies, in particular on the use of computer programs for drawing.
Thus, the Polish authorities wanted to protect players from the harmful effects of gambling and increase tax revenue. But Poland did not stop there either. In 2017, new rules were introduced:
- The company cannot offer online gambling unless there is permission from Polish regulators.
- If a company breaks the rules, it pays a fine of up to PLN 5 million or loses its license.
- There was a limit on the maximum winnings in slot machines in online casinos, as well as a limit on the amount of bets in online games.
- All bookmakers must be registered in Poland and have an office.
- Introduced a transaction monitoring system for gaming companies to prevent money laundering.
- They created a system in which you could add yourself to limit your access to gambling.
Licensing
Licenses in Poland are issued for opening a specific gambling establishment, and not for conducting gambling activities in general. You also need to separately license various kinds of gaming events, such as poker tournaments.
The validity of the license is different: for a casino, bookmaker or bingo parlor – 6 years, and for poker tournaments – 3 months. Licenses may be revoked for violation. It means that for opening a licensed online casino or poker club you will need 2 different licences.
Taxes
Taxes for gambling business are quite high, but they depend on the type of activity:
- Operators that offer card games and slot machines pay more – 50% of income.
- Holding poker tournaments and organizing bingo games is taxed at 25%.
- Totalizators and bookmakers pay 12%.
- And lotteries – 10%.
Problems of the Polish gambling market
It is difficult to enter the gambling business in Poland, and even more difficult to stay in it. The reason is the severity of laws, difficulties in obtaining a license and rather high tax rates.
All this created ideal conditions for the “gray” gambling market in one of the EU countries. This is especially true for the online sector. There are quite a lot of offshore casinos and betting sites on the Polish Internet. The Ministry of Finance is trying to keep a close eye on those who break the law, fine them large sums and block their websites. However, the problem still remains.
In 2021, the illegal gambling market in Poland reached PLN 27.7 billion in circulation, which is more than half of the entire market, Polish media write. Therefore, the state budget receives less than PLN 780 million from gambling tax.
This situation is very outrageous for the “white” gambling business, which complies with all the rules of the market and pays taxes, but is losing its competitive advantage. Experts say that the qualitative development of the local gambling business in Poland is possible only if the laws governing it are weakened.