In 2019, Polish legal bookmakers generated a turnover of nearly PLN 7 billion

At the end of 2019, 17 entities were authorised by the Ministry of Finance to organise bets in Poland. Last year, legal operators generated a turnover of PLN 6.7 billion. Bookmakers paid over PLN 800 million to the state budget due to gambling tax. Increased activity of unlicensed entities has resulted in the grey market growing to nearly 60% of the gambling market in Poland.

STS is the largest bookmaker in Poland; it controls 45.4% of the licensed part of the sector. Fortuna has a 31.3% market share, forBET 6%, Totolotek 5%, and other players control the remaining 12.3% of the industry.

Since 1 July 2017, websites of unlicensed operators, as well as payments made to them, have been subject to blocking. Currently, the Register contains over 8,300 domains, but it is not updated frequently enough. Moreover, some unlicensed entities regularly change their domain names in order to bypass blocking and continue to provide services freely – which was only this year pointed out by the Supreme Audit Office in its report concerning oversight over the gambling market in Poland.

In 2019, the “Graj Legalnie” Association reported 1830 addresses to the Register, of which 1303 still have not been included. The Association re-reported 1242 websites. “It takes between 1 and 7 months for a website to be entered into the Register,” says Katarzyna Mikołajczyk, President of the “Graj Legalnie” Association.

Websites of unlicensed operators continue to enjoy high traffic from Poland, even though they are listed in the Register of Domains which offer gambling services. Only in November this year, three selected foreign operators had nearly 2.1 million visits from Poland, despite the fact that their websites are listed in the Register kept by the Ministry of Finance.

Following in the footsteps of other European countries, a dedicated office which would be responsible for market regulation should be established in Poland. A specialised unit with a precisely defined list of tasks – modelled on the UK’s Gambling Commission or the Malta Gaming Authority – would enable a more effective oversight of the sector. It would also be more efficient in counteracting the recurrent grey market.

In the opinion of the “Graj Legalnie” Association, state authorities should maintain and update the Register of Domains which offer gambling services in Violation of the Act in a more effective manner. They should also enforce website blocking by telecommunications service providers. Further legislative initiatives and clarification of existing provisions are also needed. The legislator should also verify the current form of taxation of bets and, consequently, rationalise the existing tax regulations. Currently, bookmakers operating in Poland pay a 12% turnover tax, which is the highest in Europe. Fulfilment of the aforementioned wishes would help maintain the current dynamic of grey market reduction and generate high tax revenues. Had the law in force in Poland been fully enforced, the state budget would have received approximately PLN 1.1 billion in additional revenue this year. Combined with contributions from legal entities, the state budget would have received almost PLN 2 billion from gambling tax.