Prime Minister Donald Tusk is to present a new, restrictive draft of Poland’s gambling law this week.
The piece of legislations proposes a two-fold increase in taxes on gambling machines and making ‘one arm bandits’ only accessible to adults.
“The Prime Minister regards gambling as dangerous, we should not create situations in which it is easy to become addicted,” one of Tusk’s senior advisers Michal Boni told the daily Gazeta Wyborcza.
Taxes on gambling machines are to rise from 180 euro a month, the current price, to at least 360 euro. Players will be asked to show their ID to prove they are adults.
The government is bracing up for a crackdown in on-line gambling. It is banned in Poland but the sector is thriving. Boni says instruments of combating e-gambling will be made available to enforce the ban. Illegal transfers of money from games will be monitored and blocked, he said.
The government also seeks to regulate the problem of lobbying, which should be transparent. The lobbying law now in force has not passed the test. New regulations proposed in the PM’s bill will lay down clearly what is legal and what is not.
The coalition government led by the Civic Platform has been shaken recently by what came to be dubbed the ‘Blackjack affair’, leading to a series of dismissals over illegal contacts between some ministers and businessmen from the gambling sector. (kk/mmj)