Following the final of the PokerStars European Poker Tournament Polish Open, held at the Casino Poland at the Warsaw Hyatt Regency and won by Portugal’s Joao Barbosa, a board member at Casinos Poland called for new gambling legislation for the country. The present laws were created nearly twenty years ago, before the development of many of the technologies now in use, and need updating. Online gambling in Poland is increasingly popular, although earlier reports that every fifth international online player is Polish are likely to have referred to a particular online website.

State run lotteries have been in existence in Poland for more than fifty years but the first legal casino was opened by Casinos Poland in 1988. The firm is now a partnership between LOT Polish Airlines, State Enterprise Polish Airports and Century Casinos, which acquired a 33% stake in March 2007. In April the Polish Deputy Finance Minister commented that it would be impossible to enforce an online gambling ban and the best way to control the activity would be to regulate and tax it, with government programmes at least benefiting from some of the revenue.

From the start of 2009 a 10% tax on gambling games is proposed, with the additional money raised used to upgrade facilities for the 2012 UEFA European Football Championship that will be hosted jointly in Poland and Ukraine. There was also a proposal to remove the restrictions on casino numbers although the government is thought to have abandoned this plan. Casinos are presently limited to one for every 250,000 inhabitants in a city and slots operations to one for every 100,000 inhabitants. (E-11.24.08)

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