POLISH PLANS TO PROSECUTE ONLINE PLAYERS

Government plans new initiatives as internet gambling soars.
 
Despite the Polish Government’s ban on online gambling the only effect appears to have been a dramatic increase in the number of Polish players headed for the internet.
 
The Warsaw Business Journal reports that Poles will have gambled away Zloty 4 billion (GBP 887,782,877) on the internet by the end of 2010 – 20 percent more than last year before it was made illegal, this according to unnamed bookmakers quoted by daily Dziennik Gazeta Prawna. 
 
Poles spent Zloty 3.2 billion (GBP 710,226,301) on online gambling sites in 2009, which was 50 percent more than in high street casinos and betting shops.
 
The government proposes to amend the act in December of this year where online gamblers could find themselves being prosecuted for using these 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.