Friday, April 06, 2007

According to Polish newspaper, The Warsaw Voice, the country is planning to
introduce regulations to license and tax online gambling. The regulations
are similar to those in Italy, signalling that European markets are
continuing to open up doors for online gambling. Poland's decision follows
the favourable ruling for online gambling and online poker in the Placanica
case by the European Court of Justice in March, 2007. The court ruled that
Italy cannot use criminal law to ban gambling companies licensed in another
EU nation from taking bets in Italy. The court stated: "National regulations
that prohibit the acceptance of bets unless one has a licence issued by the
relevant member state restrict the freedom of services." Currently, Polish
law prohibits gambling games offered from companies located in other
countries; however, the number of online gambling sites doing business in
Poland has risen. The country has decided to change the current laws to meet
the needs of the growing industry. Firstly, costs have become much higher to
operate land-based casinos, and there are statutory restrictions on
advertising them in Polish media. Secondly, Poland does not currently tax
online gambling, and finally, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act
forced online gambling sites to seek customers outside of the US market.