Slot machines located outside casinos will disappear within five years Shutterstock

Acting with uncommon alacrity, Parliament last week passed an amendment to Poland’s gambling law. As WBJ went to press, the legislation had been sent to the president, who was expected to sign it but also planned to send it to the Constitutional Tribunal for review.
The new regulations were drawn up in the aftermath of a scandal involving gambling industry figures and top government officials.

Although the legislation doesn’t ban gambling outside of casinos altogether – as initially suggested by PM Donald Tusk – the changes wrought upon the gambling industry are far-reaching. About 50,000 slot machines currently installed in bars and shopping centers will vanish over the next five years. Many of these would have disappeared from the market anyway, because the new bill hikes the monthly tax per machine from €180 (zł.747.8) to €500 (zł.2,077). Casino operators will have to pay a 50 percent tax on their profits, up from the current 45 percent, but in exchange casinos will be allowed 70 slot machines instead of the present 30.

The Association of Bookmakers’ Employers and Employees complained that bookmaking firms haven’t been consulted on the changes, but the organization successfully campaigned against a proposal to levy a 50 percent tax on bookmakers. Tax for betting services will instead grow from 10 to 12 percent. This move is seen as the government’s way of encouraging foreign-based online bookmakers to register in Poland and pay taxes.

Online casino games are a different matter. These sites are also registered abroad, and the government hasn’t yet come up with a means to block them.

“Online gambling remains illegal. The government is working on a separate bill that would allow the blocking of such sites,” Deputy Finance Minister Jacek Kapica said last week. Such a measure would have to be approved by the EU, however.

Last week as Poland’s MPs were voting on the gambling bill, about 1,500 bars and gambling parlor employees gathered outside of Parliament. They protested the legislation because they fear that their jobs could be at stake if gambling machines are outlawed outside casinos. On the same day, agents of the Central Bureau of Investigation raided the headquarters of several slot-machine operators on suspicion of ties to organized crime.