EU gambling rules . The gambling industry in Poland is fairly new and quite contentious, and just in 2011 Poland lifted the requirement that companies had to be headquartered in the country to get a license as a form of concession and in 2015 the European Union approved the amended gambling law as consistent with EU rules. It should be noted that the EU also sent letters of concern to Sweden, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Romania and Lithuania indicating the monopolistic nature of their gambling laws. . (READ SO ONE STEP FURTHER FOR THE GAMBLING INDUSTRY IN SWITZERLAND) Only one of those has since been resolved successfully.
Despite the new law that allowed outside companies to obtain a license without having a physical location in Poland, only four companies bothered to apply for a license and consequently only 9% of online gambling in Poland is being done by those four companies, meaning that 91% of online gambling in the country is being geared towards illegal gambling sites who don't seem to be overly concerned with the law.
Frustrated by the news, and realizing the government had no means to enforce the law on offshore companies, the new Polish president announced that the government was planning to arrest individuals who were caught gambling with those websites and either fine or imprison them.
Local bookmakers objected strongly saying that penalizing bettors themselves would open up a Pandora's Box and no doubt offshore websites were upset as well, since they don't want people to go to jail because they chose to wager at their sites.
"From our perspective, the latest position is that the Gambling Bill was finally signed and promulgated over Christmas by the President and will enter into force on 1st April 2017 (some provisions will come into force in July). On the sportsbook side, there will be licensing, but a tax rate of 12% turnover hardly makes it an attractive market for most operators. Online casino will be permitted, but only on an exclusive basis for publicly-run companies.” Affirmed Clive Hawkswood, President of the Remote Gambling Association
For the EU, they will likely continue to complain and threaten Poland but it's clear Poland doesn't really care what the EU says, plus, in the face of Brexit, the EU can ill afford to upset another Union member who may in turn threaten to leave the EU also.
