Carry on regardless
Despite the EC expressing serious doubts about its proposed online gambling legislation, Poland is forging ahead regardless, warns our anonymous country manager.
While all big operators and the European Commission (EC) are busy with developments in France, Italy and Germany, we are facing the prospect of a potentially large online market being limited and closed down by its government.
The new Polish Gambling Act is coming closer and closer, even though it hasn’t been yet approved by the EC. The government minister responsible for the new legislation, Jacek Kapica, is so sure of his position that he wants to get the Gambling Act made live even though the EC has expressed some serious doubts regarding certain provisions contained within it.
The main points of the draft state that only sports betting will be allowed in Poland. Companies that would wish to offer it legally would need to get a Polish licence, together with placing their data servers and undertaking all financial transactions within Poland.
But the main point is the 12% turnover tax which would give Poland the highest online taxation regime in the EU. This combined with the restriction of gambling advertising and promotions to sport sponsorship would make it almost impossible to operate profitably and legally in this country.
Kapica told newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza in an interview last week that he doesn’t like the situation of online gambling being licensed by a few countries in Europe and territories within the EU (such as Poland) facing the consequences of that.
He added: “Our project includes an option of fining gambling companies’ managers acting in Poland. Of course we are aware that countries like Malta or UK won’t give away their citizens but we do hope that big and serious companies will want to avoid problems and will withdraw their manager and their entire operations from Poland”
That means that the Polish government aims to get rid of all large European operators from the market without first gaining clearance from the EC. And all this comes just 12 months after companies like Betclic, Unibet, Bet-At-Home, Expekt were sponsors of the largest Polish football teams and leagues, together with the national team, and the year before Poland hosts the 2012 UEFA European Football Championship.