Polish court upholds right to blacklist

A Polish court has upheld the Polish Ministry of Finance’s right to blacklist unlicensed gambling company’s operating within its borders.

Four unnamed operators had filed five separate legal complaints stating that the Ministry of Finance could not add their website domains to the blacklist without first obtaining a court order to do so, an assertion that was dismissed by a judge in the Warsaw Regional Administrative Court.

The court noted the European Commission had no objection to the blacklist, having dropped its open infringement case into the possible non-compliance of Polish gambling regulations with EU law. The commission dropped all open infringement cases against EU member states concerning online gambling in December 2017.

Under current Polish law, the Polish Ministry of Finance keeps a list of all domains belonging to unlicensed online gambling operators.

In regulations instituted in July 2017, Polish internet service providers (ISP’s) are required to block access to any website which appears on this list, with users instead being redirected to a website run by the Ministry of Finance outlining the consequences of illegal gambling.

Payment service providers (PSP’s) are also likewise required under this law to block payments to any online gambling operator on the list. ISPs and PSPs can be fined if they fail to comply with their obligations, with a maximum fine of PLN250,000 in either case.

At present this domain registry comprises over 2,379 separate websites belonging to some of the biggest names in the gambling industry including Betsson, Ladbrokes, Unibet and Fortuna Group.

Any operator or owner of a domain which appears on the list of blacklisted websites as well as those ISP’s and PSP’s which are affected by the legislation can file an objection against the specific website being added to the blacklist. These objections are firstly considered by the Minister of Finance with any decision made by he/she being contestable before an administrative court.

Under article 29 of the prior 2009 Gambling Act, only the holder of a state monopoly can offer online gambling services, all other operators are prohibited from doing so, while participating in online gambling organised by foreign operators that are unlicensed in Poland is a crime.

The only other type of online gambling which can be accessed by gambling operators is online betting or promotional lotteries, with the Polish Ministry of Finance granting six year permits for online betting and two-year licence permits for promotional lotteries.

Only nine international operators have successfully obtained online sports betting licences, with Cherry AB becoming the latest to do so earlier this month.