Polish Preparing to Regulate Online Gambling Industry

May 6 - As European countries face growing pressure from the European Commission regarding their stand on internet gambling, it seems that Poland has decided to heed international advice and has started taking steps to regulate its own industry.

The country's Deputy Finance Minister recently announced that the Polish online gambling industry will be regulated in the near future, with experts predicting that this may happen as early as the end of the current year.

Minister Jacek Kapica said: "We cannot control this process anyway and it is better that the budget at least derives some revenue from it."

It seems that the political landscape in Poland is ripe for change. The country's former left-wing inclined Democratic Left Alliance has been losing the population's support, while its Law and Justice and Civic Platform parties have shared time in ruling the country since the 2005 elections. The Civic Platform, which is currently in power, is a largely democratic movement and has led the way to regulate the Polish online gambling industry.

While some industry experts say that regulation will be too costly for Poland to implement, and that the revenues that the country hopes to see from the industry will be lower than expected, others have stated that the opposite is true and that the country stands to gain billions of dollars from regulation. At the present moment, it seems that the Polish government is siding with the latter opinion and is going ahead with its regulation plans.

The Polish government realizes that for the country to truly become a part of the European Union, it will need to conform with some of the demands, including those made on the Polish online gambling industry. The European Commission has demanded that Poland, as well as other countries, open up its market to foreign operators and do away with exclusionist policies. Recent European Court of Justice cases, such as one involving Italy, have determined that there is no legal way for a country to prosecute online gambling sites if they are run from other European countries. With this in mind, Poland is taking the smart step of regulating its online gambling industry this year.