Open licensing, split by function
Alderney
A Channel Island jurisdiction whose licence separates the customer relationship from the platform operation.
Licensed online casino
Poland
Online betting is permitted to commercial operators; online casino belongs to a single state operator.
| Product | Position | What that means |
|---|---|---|
| Online casino | State monopoly | Reserved to a state or state-controlled operator; no commercial licence is available. |
| Sports betting | Licensed | Commercial operators can be licensed to offer this product to local customers. |
| Online poker | State monopoly | Reserved to a state or state-controlled operator; no commercial licence is available. |
| Lottery | State monopoly | Reserved to a state or state-controlled operator; no commercial licence is available. |
How the market works
Poland's 2016 amendments, effective from 2017, created a workable permit for online sports betting and simultaneously reserved online casino games to a state-owned operator. There is no commercial route into Polish online slots or table games, and the licensed betting sector is small in number because the permit terms are demanding.
Enforcement rests on a public register of blocked domains that internet providers must implement, together with a prohibition on payment processing to listed operators. The register is among the largest in Europe and is updated continuously.
Online betting is taxed on turnover, not revenue, which compresses the margin available for pricing and is the main reason Polish odds and product range differ from those offered by the same operators in revenue-taxed markets.
Who regulates it
Ministry of Finance (MF), based in Warsaw and operating under Gambling Act 2009, as amended in 2016. The Polish ministry that permits online betting while reserving online casino to a state operator.
Licence types issued
- Online sports betting permit
- Land-based casino concession
Questions about Poland
Other markets in Europe
Online licence tied to a land-based licence
Belgium
Online licences exist only as supplements to land-based licences, and advertising is prohibited.
Tied to land-based online casino
Open licensing per game type
Czechia
A licensed market with a mandatory central exclusion register that covers more than self-exclusion.
Licensed online casino
Open licensing
Denmark
An early licensing regime whose certification programme and exclusion register were widely copied.
Licensed online casino
Monopoly, with licensing legislated for 2027
Finland
One of Europe's last gambling monopolies, legislated to open to licensed competition from 2027.
State monopoly online casino
Open licensing, three verticals only
France
The largest European economy with no legal online casino: only betting, horse racing and poker can be licensed.
Prohibited online casino
Background reading
Legal and compliance
What a gaming licence actually covers
A licence is not a badge of quality and it is not valid everywhere. What it authorises, who it binds, and why one company often holds a dozen.
Legal and compliance
How gambling is taxed, and why the base matters
A tax on stakes and a tax on gross gaming revenue can carry the same headline number and produce completely different businesses.
Legal and compliance
How a company enters a new market
The sequence from legal assessment to launch, and the parts that routinely take longer than anyone plans for.
Legal and compliance
What grey and black markets actually mean
The industry uses three words for the legal status of a market and rarely defines them. Here is what each one means in practice.