Poland’s new online gambling blacklist undergoes growth spurt

Poland has updated its blacklist of the online gambling domains it intends to block starting this summer.

On Friday, Poland’s Ministry of Finance added more names to its list of domains deemed to be offering online gambling services to Polish punters without the necessary local license. The list made its first appearance last month in a test mode but the Ministry has since decided it’s official time to take (domain) names and kick ass.

The list doesn’t contain a whole lot of household names, but there are a few familiar faces, including Marathonbet, Bet-at-home and Vulkanbet. The majority of the domains are either .com or .eu, although there is one Polish site, the Kahnawake-licensed Pankasyno.pl, as well as the Curacao-licensed 10futuriti.ru.

Under the amended Polish Gambling Act passed last December, all online operators not holding a Polish license were supposed to exit the market as of April 1. Many big operators have duly complied, likely fearing that their inability to legally justify their continued presence in Poland could create problems with regulators in other, more lucrative European online markets.