Poland Still Blocking
Online Gambling
February
11, 2010
The country of Poland has
made it fairly clear that they are not in support of online gambling.
However, a new online gambling bill has taken their attempts a bit far
and their residents are upset and outraged by what they see as
censorship. Part of a new gambling bill would allow them to block online
gambling sites and sites that are considered to be questionable or
against the law.
But residents say that they have fought long and hard for their freedom
and they are not going to let any lawmakers take that away from them.
The government is simply following many other countries that have
already taken steps to block certain entities from their residents. The
United States blocked online gambling with the passage of the Unlawful
Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, or UIGEA; the Chinese and Australians
both have internet blocks of their own that they are trying to
implement.
However, thousands of web users have sent letters and signed a petition
addressed to President Lech Kaczyński, where they have asked him to veto
the online gambling bill. They said that the bill will restrict the
freedom of the internet and although it might be online gambling that
they block today – tomorrow it will be something else. They are worried
about the slippery slope and the power that this would give the
government to keep out what they didn’t want their users seeing.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk is aware of how unhappy their residents are
with this idea and has asked them to come and tell him what they like
and don’t like about the new online gambling bill. He is offering them a
chance to have their voices heard through both live and online debates.
