## Regulating bodies General supervisory authority for gambling rests with the minister competent for public finance i.e. Ministry of Finance. The ongoing supervision of gambling in Poland, as well as enforcement, is carried out by the National Revenue Administration. The Opole Customs and Fiscal Office (Opolski Urząd Celno-Skarbowy) has been appointed to deal with matters relating to the Register of domains used to offer gambling in contravention of the Act. ## Supervision by Regulator Entities organising gambling games and conducting activity in this area shall be obliged to provide, at the request of the minister in charge of public finance, information concerning their functioning. Entities organising and conducting activity in the area of gambling games shall be obliged to submit to the minister in charge of public finance or the director of a tax administration chamber competent to grant a given licence, as appropriate, by 21st day of the month following every calendar quarter, economic and financial data related to their activity, with a special emphasis on the turnover, the financial result, economic indicators, in particular the employment rate, and statistical indicators used by those entities. The procedure of transmission and the detailed scope of the data are defined by a new regulation of the Minister responsible for public finance of 29 March 2022 Pursuant to the applicable regulation, the entity organising and conducting gambling activities shall transmit, among others, the following data: data confirming the fulfilment of the condition - in the case of betting on guessing virtual events; number of players and other player statistics - in the case of online gambling, i.e. data on the number of players by age bracket on the last day of the reporting period; data on player activity in the reporting period; data on gaming activity in the reporting period data to verify the compliance of the activity with the licence or permit granted and with the approved gambling regulations, and to shape gambling policy. ## Enforcement against licensed operators If a licensed operator breaches the law, the licence or the provisions of its T&Cs, the Minister of Finance may issue a decision requiring the company to cure deficiencies within a determined period. Furthermore, the regulator may revoke the licence in the following cases: (i) the operator fails to cure deficiencies in a timely manner; (ii) the operator materially breaches any provisions of law which apply to the gambling operations; (iii) the share capital of the operator is reduced below the statutory minimum; (iv) the company decides to resign from operating games or does not offer them for a period of six months (the latter applies only to casinos and bingo game arcades); (v) a board member or a shareholder is convicted for a money-laundering crime; (vi) a minor participates in games twice in the same betting arcade (does not apply to online betting); (vii) the company fails to provide AML documentation as requested by the regulator; (viii) the company fails to provide an audited financial statement (or when the auditor’s opinion indicates material breach of accounting laws); or (ix) the company has been conducting gaming activity through a foreign EU/EFTA operator without having appointed a representative for a period of at least two months. The decision on licence revocation is effective at the moment of its receipt; therefore, the operator whose licence has been revoked must refrain from operating, even if it decides to challenge the decision (the obligation to refrain lasts for the period of an appeal procedure). ## Typical triggers for enforcement against unlicensed operators Sanctions can be initiated particularly against payment service providers providing payment services on a website using an Internet domain name entered in the Register of Domains Used for Offering Gambling Games Contrary to the Act, kept by the Minister of Finance. Sanctions can also be initiated against telecommunications undertakings that have not fulfilled the obligations to prevent access to internet websites which have been blacklisted and fail to redirect attempted connections to a website run by the Ministry of Finance. ## Enforcement action taken against unlicensed operators Criminal and administrative sanctions are the enforcement method in Poland. Sanctions can be initiated against illegal gambling operators as well as players using these illegal websites. Sanctions can be initiated particularly against: illegal gambling operators; users playing on illegal websites; participant in the process of production or dissemination of gaming advertisements in breach of the law; payment service providers providing payment services on a website using an Internet domain name entered in the Register of Domains Used for Offering Gambling Games Contrary to the Act, kept by the Minister of Finance; telecommunications undertakings that have not fulfilled the obligations to prevent access to Internet websites using the names of blacklisted domains and to redirect connections referring to blacklisted domains to a website run by the Ministry of Finance. Criminal sanctions: formal investigation against persons involved in organising gambling games without a licence, persons who advertise them contrary to the law, or gamblers playing unlicensed games may be commenced upon the provisions of law, as all of the above mentioned constitute criminal fiscal offences. Administrative sanctions: financial penalties, a right to blacklist a domain which is used to organise and offer unlicensed gambling to Polish individuals and a website blocking procedure – once the domain is blacklisted, the internet service provider is obliged to block the website to unable its further use by individuals. Betting An amendment to the Gambling Act introduced 1 June 2021 provides significant change in the field of blacklisting of domains. According to the Act, foreign and domestic operators offering online betting without a licence shall expect entering the domain used for organising betting to be entered in the Register of Domains Used for Offering Gambling Games Contract to the Act (the Registry). According to the new sound of Article 15f, paragraph 4, domains available to Internet users located in the territory of the Republic of Poland shall be entered in the Register. According to the previous regulation, in order to register a domain, it was necessary to prove that it is directed to service users in the territory of the Republic of Poland. From 1 June 2021, the "availability" of the domain to users located in Poland is sufficient ground for entering the domain into the Register. Also, according to the abovementioned amendment, not only will the names of Internet domains used to organise gambling contrary to the provisions of the Act be entered in the Register, but also the names of domains used to advertise or promote unlawful gambling available to Internet users located in the territory of the Republic of Poland. Thus, after 1 June 2021 the Register also includes websites that serve to advertise and promote online casinos and gambling games that are not operated in compliance with Polish law, in particular affiliate websites. These regulations also provide for changes in the approval of entries or changes in the Register. Before 1 June 2021, any change in the Register had to be approved by the competent minister for public finance or a secretary of state or undersecretary of state in the office serving the minister for public finance authorised by the minister. In accordance with the Regulation of the Minister of Finance of 23 May 2022, the Opole Customs and Fiscal Office (Opolski Urząd Celno-Skarbowy) has been appointed to deal with matters relating to the Register of domains used to offer gambling in contravention of the Act. After entering the domain into the Register, the domain owner is entitled to file an objection by the competent minister for public finance in order to prove that the entry was groundless. At the same time, according to the additional amendment to Article 15f Section 9, the deadline for considering objections has been extended from 7 to 14 days. As of 16 October 2026, there are approximately 59,000 blacklisted domains. The Register can be found under: https://hazard.mf.gov.pl/ Other enforcement measures that could be taken towards an operator offering unlicensed betting might be following: Criminal sanctions - formal investigation commenced against persons involved in organising betting without a licence, players and persons or entities advertising such betting; and Administrative sanctions - financial penalties.
Poland · Question 10 of 11
Poland Gambling — Enforcement: How hard does the regulator enforce?
Mixed · Confirmed · Expert approved · 3 post-review updates · Not reviewed · In expert review scope · Back to full Poland report →
Key section parameters
| Jurisdiction | Poland (PL) |
|---|---|
| Regulator | Recorded in register |
| Favourability | Mixed |
| Confidence | Confirmed |
| Review status | Expert approved · 3 post-review updates · Not reviewed · In expert review scope |
| Last collected | 25 Oct 2026 |
Summary answer
## Regulating bodies General supervisory authority for gambling rests with the minister competent for public finance i.e. Ministry of Finance. The ongoing supervision of gambling in Poland, as well as enforcement, is carried out by the National Revenue Administration. The Opole Customs and Fiscal O…
Not reviewed Read update
The defining enforcement development this cycle is the extension of illegal-gambling enforcement from domain-blocking to the payment-rail level. BLIK, Poland's dominant instant-payment scheme, began blocking payment authorisation to domains listed on the Ministry of Finance illegal-gambling register from 1 September 2026, following approval by the President of the National Bank of Poland, and applies to both domestic and foreign payment agents. This is a probable-confidence finding, sourced from trade press rather than a directly retrieved primary Ministry of Finance page, but it marks the first identified payment-rail-level blocking mechanism for this jurisdiction. Consistent with the civil-law enforcement-theory pattern, unlicensed gambling operation is an offence under the gambling statute itself, with blocking regimes as the secondary enforcement vector; this cycle's development extends that secondary vector from domain-level (ISP) blocking to payment-level blocking. A separate but related development, the draft Article 255b Penal Code amendment criminalising promotion or streaming of illegal gambling, would add a distribution-side criminal-liability layer alongside the existing statutory licensing offence and the new payment-blocking mechanism, received by the Sejm and backed by the governing coalition, though not yet enacted.
Not reviewed Read update
Poland's enforcement architecture expanded materially this cycle. BLIK, described as one of the country's dominant payment processors, began blocking payments directed at domains on the Ministry of Finance's Register of Illegal Gambling Websites from 1 September 2026, corroborated by two independent trade-press reports citing the same date — a confirmed, structurally significant extension of enforcement from ISP/domain-blocking into the payments rail. Separately, the Sejm passed the "End of Patostreaming" bill 419 votes to 19 on 12 June 2026, which would criminalise influencer and streamer promotion of illegal gambling with penalties of three months to five years' imprisonment; this is not yet law, remaining fragile pending legislation awaiting Senate action and further steps, with its final disposition unconfirmed this cycle. Under the civil-law enforcement-theory pattern generally applicable to Poland, unlicensed gambling operation is an offence under the gambling statute itself, with blocking and now payment-restriction mechanisms functioning as the operative secondary enforcement vectors; no articulated safe-harbour doctrine exists for intermediaries caught within this framework. Taken together, these two developments read as a coordinated tightening of the state's enforcement toolkit rather than isolated actions.
Not reviewed Read update
The Sejm passed the End of Patostreaming bill by a 419-19 vote, criminalising the promotion of illegal online gambling by influencers and streamers, with penalties ranging from three months to five years imprisonment. The bill is pending Senate action and is not yet in force; its durability is mixed, given its status as a Penal Code amendment still moving through the legislative stack rather than settled law. Corroboration comes from three independent Tier-3 trade-press sources; no Tier-1 regulator or Ministry of Finance confirmation was reached this cycle, which caps confidence at probable rather than confirmed. This marks a probable shift toward criminal-law rather than purely administrative enforcement against unlicensed gambling promotion, consistent with the civil-law pattern of grounding enforcement in the primary statutory instrument itself rather than a secondary licence-breach theory. The practical effect, if enacted, is to attach direct criminal exposure to the promotional channel, streaming and influencer marketing, independent of the underlying operator's own licensing status.