Poles will have gambled away zł.4 billion on the internet by the end of 2010 – 20 percent more than last year before it was made illegal, according to an unnamed bookmakers quoted by daily Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

Poles spent zł.3.2 billion on online gambling sites in 2009, which was 50 percent more than in highstreet casinos and betting shops.

The gambling site PokerStars.pl now advertises throughout Poland on local cable stations in defiance of the act passed in October 2009 that not only outlawed online gambling but also its advertising.

The Polish government can do nothing at present because PokerStars.pl and other similar sites are registered abroad.

Originally, the Polish government had intended to keep a register of online casinos and block access to them in Poland, but it abandoned the idea after it came in for severe criticism.

The government now proposes to amend the act in December so that the gamblers themselves may be prosecuted for using such sites. It also proposes that sites advertising their services in Polish should be brought under the jurisdiction of Polish law regardless of where they are registered.

The Finance Ministry admits that it has no idea of the size of the online gambling market in Poland.