Poland Gambling Tax Scandal Resurfaces

By Brian Cullingworth, Last updated Jan 5, 2018

National Public Prosecutor is relaunching the investigation into historical conduct of Tusk government ministers and officials

Poland‘s national public prosecutor, Bogdan Święczkowski, has announced that he has reopened a 2006 – 2011 investigation into gambling tax irregularities which was closed during the tenure of the former Tusk government.

Święczkowski said he has analysed the case files, which include the questionable removal from the original case of a prosecutor who had planned to bring charges against the deputy minister of finance at the time of the scandal.

The affair ultimately resulted in several top government officials resigning, including then-Interior Minister and Deputy PM Grzegorz Schetyna (who remains in politics as the leader of the opposition Civic Platform party).

The scandal became public when a national daily newspaper reported on meetings between Tusk government ministers and gambling industry representatives in 2009 on the registration of slot machines, which were followed by lobbying to halt the implementation of increased taxation on betting.

The original investigation was closed by the District Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw in April 2011 on grounds that there was not enough evidence to win a criminal court case.

The head of the Tusk government, Donald Tusk, is now president of the European Council.

Brian Cullingworth

Infopowa news was a staple of Casinomeister’s news from 2000 until 2019. Brian Cullingworth was the main writer, contributor, and was one of the most knowledgeable persons I have ever known involved in the online casino industry.

We first met in January 2001 at the ICE in London where I observed him going booth to booth interviewing online casino, software, and licensing jurisdiction representatives. Brian was also heavily involved with our forum as “Jetset“, he was involved as an informal consultant to eCOGRA, the OPA, and was a player advocate who assisted countless aggrieved players with his connections to industry folks. He also published “Casino Cautions” via Infopowa news for quite a number of years. These can be found in our news archives.

His passing in February 2019 was a dark day for us. He will be forever missed.


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