Clamping down on Internet gambling in Poland?

There is talk these days in Poland according to Polish online news portals on trying to remove one-armed bandits from supermarkets, petrol stations, bars, etc. and limit them to licensed casinos. Also to clamp down on online gaming. Some say that Internet is uncontrollable or shouldn't be controlled.

Do you believe the Internet should be the only medium not subjected to the kind of editorial control and government scrutiny that the print and electronic media area?

If so, why? If not, why?

Online Poker has exploded in popularity over tha last couple of years - how come I only ever meet people who claim to be winning large amounts ?

Online share dealing can turn anyone into a day trader, Poker seems to be better regulated than the London Stock Exchange :-)

If America couldn't stop online gambling, what hope does Poland have? Absolutely none.

One armed bandits hurt no-one as well - if anything, they're an idiot tax. Certainly, they keep "kurwa boys" quiet in train/bus stations, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with them. There might be a cause to limit the top prizes to 100 zloty or so, but they are fundamentally harmless. In fact - the real problems are caused by them being unregulated, combined with having large prizes. If the chips were sealed and subject to check at any time by Customs - with dire punishments for unsealed machines, then things would be fine.

I can't help but think that Tusk has seized upon this as something that will appeal to educated-but-uneducated Catholic voters who might be swayed by PiS language and yet has no potential of hurting his core base of support.

The ban on online gambling is ridiculous - people like me who have no problems dropping 50zl on online poker and having fun with micro tournaments are just going to be alienated, while there's unlikely to be much social issues with those that are high rollers.

Being rather ignorant of the overall logistics of the Internet, I'm wondering how techncially feasible controlling Internet content -- any content -- is. China has legions (I read somewhere 50,000) computer experts who do nothing else but scrutinise the net and excise poltically objectionable content. And one does hear from time to time of paedophilic and hate portals being shut down.

This is because people from PO were involved in all these shady lobbing for gabling business. Today they want to sacrifice gambling business in favour of popularity rankings. By targeting gambling they wish to left impression that Chlebowski case doesn't mean that whole party is on their payroll. Anyway this is just another anti-liberal initiative coming from this government.

This is not only stupid move but also totally dishonest. If they would wish to solve supposed problem with hazard they would ban Totolotek (Polish national lottery) in the first place. Of course this is not the case because Totolotek bring a lot of cash to state budget while one-armed bandits are controlled by private sector. This is another example of privileged position of state owned companies.

Yes, but tax revenues help bankroll the woefully udnerfinanced health service and other cash-strpped areas..... Theoretically at least, because tax-payers also bankroll the big limos and VIP lifestyles of fat-cat politicians.

However, nobody has answered my basic question as to whether and to what extent the control of Internet content (not necessarily gambling) is technically and financially feasible.

the uk government is talking about banning all illegal (music) downloads in the next couple of years. quite how they will do it, i don't know

I have heard Poland has closed down a racist Blood (something - Blood & Iron or some such nonsense), so it can be done.

They are already making "file sharing" illegal - they can simply close your internet account down if they find that you are doing it, everything is traceable....I wrote on the board a while ago, my nephews friend had the Police come to his house and they confiscated his laptop, then returned it, completely cleared down.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8305379.stm

It's feasible - the Great Firewall of China proves this. But it's at a ridiculously high cost - and even then, the Great Firewall does have plenty of holes. It's certainly nothing that Poland could implement easily - as China has had to regulate almost every aspect of internet use in order to partially succeed.

The best bet is looking at how the USA has implemented their ban on online gambling - with the answer being that they've failed miserably.

Poland could block access by simply demanding that ISP's in Poland refuse access to websites with 'gambling', 'poker' and so on - but this is very technically easy to bypass.


Can't argue with you there at all. The fact that the Duzy Lotek has now become 'Lotto' with a higher priced ticket and higher prizes says that the Government are incredibly hypocritical on the matter.

Who owns the gambling mechanism in Poland right now?...I mean slot machines, casinos etc?