Polish Government warns online players

Clearly perturbed by the amount of money flowing to unlicensed online gambling operators from Polish internet punters, the country’s Ministry of Finance has warned that the government has the power and the legislation to prosecute players who give their business to such unlicensed websites.

In a thinly veiled threat, the Ministry claims that it has monitored and identified as many as 25,000 players who use international operators unauthorised in Poland, with around two thirds of these winning the equivalent of about $8.3 million.

And it rather ominously reveals that over a thousand investigations are under way against successful or persistent punters using the illegal sites.

Poland’s rather expensive regulatory and taxation regime has meant that few online operators have been attracted to the Eastern European nation and it’s reportedly $1.5 billion gambling market.

Consequently there are just four “legal” major operators, focused mainly on sports betting and lottery action – Totolotek, Milenium, Fortuna and STS who command barely ten percent of the market.

There is hope for a more rational approach, however; the government is considering a more moderate approach which could see a wider range of choices entering a promising market to service Polish demand.

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