Despite prohibition, Poles spend 20% more betting online

It appears that, despite recent prohibition, citizens of Poland actually spent twenty percent more gambling online last year than the previous year. New legislation came into force in January 2010 in Poland that made online gambling illegal. At the time however, it was suggested that instead of regulating the online betting industry, the most likely outcome would be to drive profits into the hands of illegally operated, unregulated operators.

Alex Dobes of Czech bookmaker Fortuna Entertainment, which runs a Polish subsidiary, Fortuna zaklady bukmacherskie, explained that this was largely what had happened and that online betting was still continuing but through illegal, unregulated channels. Fortuna still currently runs brick & mortar outlets in Poland.

At the end of October Dobes stated “We expect the government to accelerate work on a draft amendment to the Act entailing the legalization of online betting for legal betting operators registered in Poland,”. At the time it was estimated that the Polish treasury would lose between zł150-200 million (€38-50 million) through losses in taxation per year.

So far the critics have been largely proved correct but more recent news suggests that not only did the new laws not stop Poles betting online, they have not even slowed the increase in online gambling's popularity. Poles spent zł3.2 billion (€0.8 billion) betting online in 2009 and the forecast for 2010 is for that figure to reach zł4 billion (€1.01 billion)– an increase of twenty percent. One consequence of the ban was that companies previously registered in Poland simply had to reregister abroad and continue to make their sites available in Poland. PokerStars.pl is a prime example of this and they have even started to advertise within Poland on local cable channels although this type of promotion does contravene the new laws.

The Polish government had originally floated the idea of blacklisting all gambling sites and preventing them from operating in the country but this suggestion was severely criticised and dropped. It may now amend the law in December so that it is not only illegal to run a website from inside Poland but also for individuals to bet on them. It has also proposed that websited advertising in Polish be regulated whether within or outside Poland.

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