Poland’s gambling industry trade association has addressed the Government by filing a petition seeking some comprehensive changes to the country’s gambling framework regarding both land-based and online gambling operators. The association has argued that the existing ta policy of the country is what makes the Polish gambling sector unattractive for most international gambling operators.
Polska Izba Gospodarcza Branży Rozkywkowei (PIGBRIB), the local gambling trade body, filed a report with the country’s Government, making a recommendation for the replacement of the current 12% tax on gambling companies’ turnover with a 20% tax rate on gross gaming revenue (GGR). The report of the PIGBRIB has been issued to Poland’s lower house, Sejm, claiming that the gambling enforcements that were made by the country’s Treasury in 2017 have not been suitable for the needs of a growing contemporary economy.
The report that has been unveiled by PIGBRIB offers four critical criteria for the ministers to consider. According to the trade association, the development of a strict state-sanctioned supervisory unit that would be empowered to monitor all gambling services and operators should be set as a priority. Also, the development of gambling legislation that would eliminate so-called grey areas in the market and would guarantee larger economic benefits is set as an issue with top priority by PIGBRIB.
The trade association also suggested that some consumer-led gambling policies should be developed. Last but not least, the body also recommended that both state and private gambling companies should be permitted to operate in order to make sure the market conditions are well-balanced.
European Gambling Operators Have Earmarked Poland as “Unworkable Marketplace”
For a couple of years now, Poland was earmarked as an “unworkable marketplace” by a large number of European gambling companies that had decided to withdraw their operations from the country. One of the main reasons for them to make such a decision was the restrictive policy of the Government in regard to online casino games in favor of Totalizator Sportowy that has been the one holding the state monopoly on these services. Furthermore, the enforcement of a 12% turnover tax across all gambling verticals was also considered hostile to foreign gambling operators.
Why is the current gambling framework of the country seen as “non-viable” by the local gambling trade body? Back in 2016, the governing PiS National Conservative Party ordered the Polish Treasury to start a massive reform of the country’s gambling legislation – a measure that has considerably changed the sector’s outlines on the following year.
After a few years under the most recent changes in the Polish gambling framework, PIGBRIB has called for the ministers of the lower house of Parliament to reconsider the existing legislation. The main motive for a potential change unveiled by the gambling trade association was the establishment of a more favorable regime for gambling businesses, under which a healthier and more competitive gambling sector would be guaranteed. Apart from that, PIGBRIB also claims that a change in Poland’s gambling regime would boost the benefits generated by the gambling industry to the state budget.
The replacement of the 12% blanket turnover tax on gambling activity in Poland has been put as one of the top priorities of the gambling trade body that has already proposed a new 20% tax rate on GGR, saying that the suggested tax rate is in line with the one adopted by most of regulated EU markets.
