The much-debated amendments to Poland’s Gambling Act have finally been approved by the legislative chambers of the Polish parliament and all that’s left now for the bill to be passed is a signature from President Andrzej Duda. The new changes, according to official reports, are to take effect on Saturday, April 1st, 2017, across both online and land-based casinos.
The major changes to the Polish Gambling Act are the addition of online poker, bingo, and casino games to the existing online lottery and sports betting markets and the removal of the limit on land-based slot machines, which will no longer be capped at 60,000. However, despite the fresh updates, the new Act is far from a positive one, as it still retains old restrictions which state that the entire online sector is to remain in the hands of Poland’s gambling monopoly – Totalizator Sportowy, the grasp of which is not to be challenged by international contenders.
The goal of the amended bill is to fight off any international operators who still cater to Polish gamblers by enforcing a new set of restrictions that include the blocking of domains and payments from unlicensed gambling sites, which are to take effect by July 1st, 2017. Per the new law, those who already hold a Polish betting license will still be allowed to advertise, although they will be forbidden to advertise any banking services on their domains.
And yet another thing that remains unchanged, despite much criticism and protests from concerned parties, is the harsh 12% tax on turnovers for licensed sport betting operators, which has thus far proven to be very thwarting for the industry. As official sources state, the legislative bodies are expected to revise and review the taxation at an unspecified date in the future through a different amendment, but there are no talks whether such an amendment will reduce the taxes or increase them further.