Poland to Legalize Online Poker and Online Gambling

Poland is planning to introduce regulations to license and tax online gambling similar to those in Italy, according to a recent article in the Polish newspaper, The Warsaw Voice, signaling that European markets continue to open up for online poker and online gambling.

Poland's decision follows the favorable ruling for online poker and online gambling in the Placanica case by the European Court of Justice (ECoJ) in March (click here to read related PokerPages article).

The courts ruled that Italy cannot use criminal law to ban gaming companies licensed in another EU nation from taking bets in Italy.

The court's ruling concerns three bookmakers who had accepted bets in Italy on behalf of British-licensed firm Stanley International Betting (SIB), where SIB had no license to conduct bookmaking business in Italy.

The ruling says that an online gambling operator who holds a license issued in one EU member state has the right to provide similar services throughout the European Union.

"National regulations that prohibit the acceptance of bets unless one has a license issued by the relevant member state restrict the freedom of services," said the court in substantiating its decision.

Under current Polish law, it is illegal to take part in gambling games offered from companies located in other countries.

But the number of online gambling sites doing business in Poland has been on a rapid rise, for several reasons.

First, it is practically impossible to enforce the ban on their operation. Second, costs are much higher to operate land-based casinos and arcades, and there are statutory restrictions on advertising them in Polish media. Third, Poland currently does not tax online gambling. Fourth, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIEGA) passed last October caused online gaming sites to look for customers outside of the huge US market.

The Polish finance ministry is working to amend the gambling law to regulate and tax online gambling companies, similar to the way the UK's Gambling Act of 2005 will do when it comes into force this September, and how Italy began to January 2007 (click here to see related PokerPages article on Italy).

The Italian government now collects a 3% tax from gaming companies on gaming revenues that Italian customers generate.

The value of the Polish market for online gambling (including online poker), lotteries and bookmakers is estimated to run into hundreds of millions or even billions of zlotys.

Analyses by the Gdansk Institute for Market Economics (IBnGR) show that such a move could on its own bring in extra annual receipts for the state budget of zl.133 million (USD 46.1 million, or GBP 23.3 million or EUR 34.5 million) from tax on gambling and an extra zl.12 million from income tax (USD 4.16 million, or GBP 2.11 million or EUR 3.11 million).

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