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Poland’s Ministry of Finance has set up a new department which will exclusively oversee the country’s gambling industry.
On October 14, the Polish finance minister issued an order which establishes the Department of Gaming Market Regulation and Gaming Tax. The ordinance has yet to be formally published.
The ministry’s new unit will take over a part of the competencies that were previously attached to the Department of the Excise Tax and Gaming Tax, which retains excise tax oversight while gambling falls under the purview of the newly created entity.
In an accompanying order that was also released on October 14, and has been published, the department laid out the organisational structure of the institution.
In the order, the finance minister says that the new department will be responsible for legislative activities in the field of gambling, as well as “monitoring the gambling market”.
The new department’s predecessor was responsible for issuing licences to local gambling industry players and regulating their activities.
It remains to be seen whether the country’s current government, formed in December 2023 by a coalition of centre-right, liberal and left-wing parties led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk of the Civic Coalition (KO) alliance, will introduce changes to the gambling law passed by the country’s previous right-wing Cabinet.
The local gambling industry has long called on the authorities to impose a gross gambling revenue (GGR) tax on bookmaking, replacing the country’s existing 12 percent turnover tax, and legalise cash poker games outside casinos, among other reforms.
Industry figures are hopeful that the formation of a new finance ministry unit could be a prelude to the development of new legislation for the country’s gambling industry.
During the previous 2019-2023 term of the Sejm, the lower chamber of the Polish parliament, the Consumer and Entrepreneurs’ Protection Team set up by a group of lawmakers issued an official gambling policy proposal document to the Ministry of Finance.
In their proposal, the lawmakers requested that the ministry introduces the GGR tax on bookmaking.
In January 2022, Poland’s then deputy finance minister, Jan Sarnowski, stated in an official document that the ministry was analysing the possibility of replacing the 12 percent revenue tax with a GGR tax.
That analytical work did not generate any formal legislative proposals before the Law and Justice party’s government was dismissed in December 2023 and replaced by Tusk’s government.
