Bad news for poker players in Poland and Israel. In both countries it seems that the government is stepping down hard on online gambling in general, and in Poland, online poker in particular.


In Poland there is a proposed new law that would regulate online gambling in the country but ban online poker altogether. The European Gaming and Betting Association, representing various gambling sites, thinks the law is contrary to EU regulations. Likewise some member countries such as Malta and the UK have expressed their concern about the development.

Poland must respond to the European Commission by August 16th.

Meanwhile in Israel the police paid a surprise visit at the offices of all Internet service providers in the country demanding that they block access to all foreign gambling websites.

Gambling is illegal in Israel but this is the first time the police are taking such drastic action. The ISP's were handed a list of the sites that have to be blocked. The list contains major sites such as Victor Chandler, and many of them are sites that are providing service in Hebrew to their Israeli customers.

The ISP's complain that the order doesn't make much sense since it would be easy for the sites to simply set up new IP's if the current ones are blocked. Furthermore they are not sure if the police even have the legal authority to make their demand.

The police announce they do not intend to back down in the matter. In most cases the ISP's were given one week to study the legal and technical implications of the issue.

Sources: CardPlayer and Haaretz.com.