Poland has signaled their intentions for the future of online gaming in the country by confirming that the regulation of sports betting is coming.
On Tuesday the country’s Finance and Physical Culture Committees passed a draft amendment to Poland’s gambling act. It will allow online sports betting but ban all other online gambling including slots, casino, and poker.
Upon hearing the news, deputy finance minister Jacek Kapica told the Polish Press Agency, “I expect that the law will come into force in June this year. We will have the next reading of draft in the coming meeting of the Parliament, then the Senate and then after 14 days the Act comes into force.”
A 12% turnover tax will be levied on all operators who choose to operate in the Polish market and licensed operators will need to operate from a .pl domain. In addition, they will have to locate data servers in Poland and run all financial transactions through Polish banks.
The European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA), the UK, and Malta criticized the bill’s original incarnation because it was unlikely to conform to EU rules. After they made a few tweaks, it now looks as though it’s all fine and dandy.
It also means that the sports betting monopoly, Totalizator Sportowy, has had its prayers answered after it had requested only last month that it be allowed to move online after a terrible 12 months saw gambling revenue fall by 20%.
Poland has unsurprisingly gone down the same road as many other European countries by picking and choosing which gambling services they want to allow. With around €1billion gambled online by Poles last year alone it beggars belief as to why they don’t just let everything go.
