Poland’s state-owned lottery and online casino monopoly Totalizator Sportowy enjoyed record sales in 2018, topping the six billion zloty mark for the first time.

Figures released this week show Totalizator Sportowy’s total sales hitting PLN6.1b (US$1.6b) in 2018, an 8.5% improvement over 2017’s result. The gains pushed Totalizator Sportowy’s total contribution to the state budget to over PLN2b while kickbacks to Polish sport and national cultural programs exceeded PLN1b, the first time these subsidies have topped the billion-zloty threshold.

Totalizator Sportowy CEO Olgierd Cieślik said breaking the “magic barrier” of PLN6b was “just the beginning of good information and a good run.” Cieślik noted that the firm’s Playtech-powered online casino Total Casino only launched in December 2018, and thus 2019’s figures will have some extra wind in their sails/sales. Cieślik previously suggested Total Casino will boost the monopoly’s online operations to around 30% of overall sales within three to four years.

It doesn’t hurt that Total Casino has a friend in the Ministry of Finance, which continues to blacklist internationally licensed gambling sites that lack Polish approval. As of April 4, the country’s online gambling blacklist listed 6,553 unapproved domains, meaning over 300 new domains have been added since March 1.