At the 17th European Economic Congress in Katowice, Polish gambling executives admitted that existing regulatory gaps have allowed the black market to encroach on Poland’s troubled and lost gambling sector. A panel of gambling industry representatives at the European Economic Congress said “the online casino market in Poland is out of the state’s control”. An honest assessment of Poland’s gambling situation was given at an event hosted by Graj Legalnie Association (Play Legally Association) and Poland’s Sports Lottery – Totalizator Sportowy. The situation is dire: since the 2017 reform of Poland’s gambling laws, which gave Totalizator Sportowy exclusive rights to operate online casino games, approximately PLN 230bn (€50bn) has gone to offshore operators. The figure is a big blow for the Treasury, which is estimated to have lost PLN 5.8bn (€1.3bn) in taxes.

Despite the government’s intentions, the sector is stuck in regulatory limbo. Since the law change eight years ago, which was supposed to limit the shadow economy and enforcement, critics say the situation has only gotten murkier. Wojciech Szpil, former head of Totalizator Sportowy and current chairman of the UN Global Compact Network Poland, pointed out the challenges for regulators.  “We are talking about the internet now, a medium that reaches all of us through the phones in our pockets,” he said. Enforcement, he added, is in the hands of the Ministry of Finance and the National Tax Administration (KAS), but the operational capacity to track and prosecute offshore entities, operating from Malta or Curaçao, is very limited.

Zdzisław Kostrubała, President of Graj Legalnie, was more blunt. “We are not against regulation — we are against regulation that doesn’t work,” he said. The eighth anniversary of the Gambling Act passed on 1 April, which was supposed to limit unlicensed activity and boost tax compliance. But the Ministry of Finance still has a blacklist of almost 50,000 domains hosting illegal games, many of which are still operational. Blocking such platforms, Kostrubała said, is a game of cat and mouse. “Monopoly is an anachronism,” he added. Others agreed. Piotr Palutkiewicz of the Warsaw Enterprise Institute said most Polish consumers don’t know that only one online casino – Total Casino is legal. “The law has not kept up with the facts,” he said.

Even consumers who want to play legally often find themselves on illegal platforms by mistake. While most European Union countries have adopted licensing models that allow multiple operators under regulatory supervision — balancing consumer freedom with state oversight. Olgierd Cieślik, who was the head of Totalizator Sportowy from 2017-2024 and the creator of Total Casino, said the legal market is growing too slowly. Figures from H2 Gambling Capital indicate that legal operators will likely take only 4–5% of market share in the next five years. Legal gambling revenue in 2024 was PLN 67bn (€14.6bn) closely followed by a theoretical PLN 65bn (€14bn) from the illegal marketplace.

Cieślik also made comparisons with other digital sectors, observing that consumers have become used to engaging with several platforms for leisure purposes – whether streaming, social media, or gambling. A monopolistic state, he claimed, does not live up to such changing expectations. While regulators throughout Europe move toward more market-based, flexible systems, Poland’s strict approach looks more and more out of touch. The grey area remains, not from a lack of law, but from a lack of effective government. The “Grey Zone” discussion panel was conducted as part of the European Economic Congress. The debate was conducted under the patronage of: Graj Legalnie Association (Play Legally Association) and Totalizator Sportowy (Sports Lottery).