Many in the online casino industry saw Poland’s move toward legalizing and regulating online gambling as a positive, but while online casino games are now technically legal in Poland, the laws governing them are so restrictive that they have been deemed unacceptable by the EU. Poland’s laws reflect the attitude of many governments when it comes to online gambling, there is a large concern over money leaving the country by way of online gambling. To this
end, Poland will only issue licenses to casinos inside Poland. Servers have to be in Poland, and only Polish banks can handle the transactions. For the average Polish citizen then, these “legalized” online casinos will offer little more in terms of choice than they would have in one of the many European countries with a state run monopoly on online gambling. Most gambling legislation is enacted with the stated purpose of protecting players from fraud as well as problem gambling. The problems encountered by the recently opened PlayNow casino in British Columbia show that governments are not necessarily better qualified to protect players than independent operators are. What EGBA is looking for is a partnership between governments and operators that will allow players to have a selection of casinos that are reflective of a truly competitive market as well as the protection of government oversight.