EC issues opinion against Polish egaming rules
The European Commission has published an opinion against the Polish government's draft legislation to regulate online gaming...
The European Commission has published a detailed opinion against the Polish government’s draft legislation regulating online gaming in the country.
The Polish government published the proposals earlier this year following a clampdown on all forms of gambling after four senior Polish officials resigned on suspicion of their decisions being unduly influenced by gaming industry lobbyists.
Sigrid Ligné, the secretary general of the European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) said the lobbying organisation supported the Polish government’s intention to join other EU member states in regulating its egaming market, but a number of provisions were highly doubtful under EU law.
“The current draft foresees a wide range of obstacles and obligations which will make it highly difficult for EU licensed and regulated operators to apply for a license in Poland. We urge Poland to revise its draft and align it with the requirements of the EU Treaty.”
Provisions highlighted by EGBA as dubious under EU law include the requirements for licensees to be established in Poland as a joint stock company, to install and store their servers in Poland and for all transactions to be carried out through Polish banks. EGBA said the exclusion of games such as online poker was also “unjustified”.
Ligne added: “Some of these provisions seem to stem from a legitimate wish to regulate and enforce the rules for the online gaming market but they duplicate requirements already fulfilled in other jurisdictions. EU licensed and regulated companies can fulfill all necessary requirements on fraud prevention and consumer protection without being necessarily established in Poland.”
As reported on EGRMagazine.com, the PLN50m (£11m) channelled into Polish sport each year by egaming companies received a stay of execution following the Polish government’s move to ban all gambling-related sports sponsorship deals.
The government’s draft legislation however led to the eventual suspension of sponsorships including Unibet’s 4m-a-season title sponsorship of the second tier of Polish football, Unibet 1.Liga; Expekt’s sponsorship of the Polish national team; and BetAtHome, Betclick and Bwin’s sponsorship of three football teams from the Ekstraklasa top division of Polish football.