Bookmakers lobby Finance Ministry over illegal online betting

photo - wikipedia

Currently, as many as nine out of ten betting transactions placed online are illegal, reports the Rzeczpospolita daily, with the unregulated gambling sector in Poland worth over 5 billion zloty (1.2 billion euro).

Owners of legally operating gambling websites have long lobbied the Finance Minsitry to clean up the sector, and are currently putting forward two proposals to stem illegal betting online.

Firstly, operators are calling for a lowering of taxes and secondly, legal betting shops want the State to block access to the illegal internet sites.

“Such a solution is completely in line with Polish law,” Zdzislaw Kostrubala from the Association of Bookmaker Employers and Employers told the daily.

Bookmakers underline that current efforts by Polish Customs to concentrate on gamblers rather than illegal operators will not solve the situation.

“Instead of getting the source of the problem they are tackling ordinary citizens,” Kostrubala said.

The comments come as customs authorities have launched proceedings against 24,000 people who illegally logged onto betting sites based abroad, 18,000 of whom are reprted to have taken combined winnings of 27 million zloty (around 7 million euro). (jb)