“The Prime Minister shot himself in the foot,” Stanisław Matuszewski, head of the Association of Producers and Operators of Gambling Machines, said on Tuesday. He added that gambling in Poland will move underground into a “gray zone.”

This followed an announcement by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, declaring war on gambling saying that the government has decided on a definitive cut on gambling.

Deputy Finance Minister Jacek Kapica said that it will be hard for the gambling industry to move underground, however. “That's impossible. It is difficult to hide such activities,” Mr Kapica said.

If the government goes ahead and makes gambling illegal, that will pose a problem for the police, according to Mr Matuszewski. “The police, rather than chase criminals will be left to look for gaming machines. … 80 km from the [Polish] border in Slovakia a center similar to Las Vegas is being built. Alexander Lukashenko is building a similar center near Minsk in Belarus. And [the Polish industry ] descends underground. Is this normal?,” asks Mr Matuszewski.

Source: TVN24