Poland guide
Gambling tax in Poland: the 10% rate, the threshold and the exemption
The rate is 10%, flat, withheld by whoever pays the win. Whether the gambling tax in Poland applies at all depends on which game and which licence: casino games at an EU or EEA licence holder are exempt without a cap, lotteries and betting are exempt up to 2,280 PLN, and an offshore licence sits outside both rules.
The rate: 10% under art. 30, withheld at source
Art. 30 ust. 1 pkt 2 of the Polish personal income tax act sets a flat tax on winnings in competitions, games and betting, and on prizes tied to premium sales, obtained in a member state of the European Union or another state of the European Economic Area, at 10% of the win or prize. Three features follow from the wording. The tax is flat, not progressive, so it does not join your other income. It is withheld by the payer under art. 41 ust. 4, which is why a licensed Polish bookmaker pays out a taxed sum and the player files nothing. And no costs are deducted under art. 30 ust. 3: a 3,000 PLN betting win is taxed at 10% of 3,000 PLN, not of the profit after the stake.
The rate has not moved. A rise to 15% was proposed by the ministry and widely reported as coming; the consolidated text of the act still reads 10%, and any page quoting the higher figure is quoting a plan that did not enter into force. What the wording also carries, and most English pages miss, is a geographic limit: the rule is written for winnings obtained in an EU or EEA state, which is the thread that runs through the rest of this guide.
The 2,280 PLN threshold and which games it covers
Art. 21 ust. 1 pkt 6a lit. a exempts wins in number games, cash lotteries, telebingo, betting, promotional lotteries, audiotext lotteries and raffle lotteries when the single win does not exceed 2,280 PLN. The word single matters: the threshold applies per win, not per year, and it is a cliff, not an allowance. A 2,000 PLN betting win is untaxed; a 3,000 PLN win is taxed at 10% of the whole 3,000 PLN, not of the 720 PLN above the line. That is why a licensed bookmaker's payout screen sometimes shows a deduction on a mid-sized win and none on a smaller one.
What the list does not include is any casino game. Slots, card games, dice, roulette and bingo have their own rule in the next letter of the same article, and it works differently.
The casino exemption: EU or EEA licence, no cap
Art. 21 ust. 1 pkt 6a lit. b exempts winnings from slot games, card games, dice games, cylindrical games, which is the act's word for roulette, cash bingo and raffle bingo, when they are run by an entitled licence holder under the gambling law of an EU member state or another EEA state. There is no threshold: a casino win from such a licence holder is exempt in full. Total Casino, licensed by the Polish Ministry of Finance under the state monopoly, is inside the rule, and so is any casino licensed in Malta or another EEA state that a Polish player could lawfully use, which under art. 5 of the Gambling Act is none for online casino games. Documentation is the practical point: a certificate of the win issued by the casino is the recognised proof, on the authority of an administrative court ruling, and Total Casino's account history serves that purpose.
Where the offshore brands sit
A casino with a Curacao or Anjouan licence is licensed outside the EEA, so lit. b does not reach it, and the 10% rule in art. 30 is written for wins obtained in an EU or EEA state. Neither provision was drafted with an offshore casino in mind, and that gap is where the commentary in the next section lives.
Winnings from an offshore casino: what the commentary says
A Polish tax law firm has published the argument that winnings from a casino with no Polish authorisation fall outside PIT altogether, on the basis of art. 2 ust. 1 pkt 4 of the act, which excludes income from acts that cannot be the subject of a legally effective contract. Two things about that argument need saying in the same breath. The firm itself stresses that the absence of a tax duty does not legitimise the money, and points to the other side of the ledger: a court may order forfeiture of the benefit in a fiscal-criminal case, and income from undisclosed sources that the taxpayer cannot document attracts a sanction rate of 75%. So the practical picture for a player is not tax-free winnings; it is money with no exemption to cite, a possible forfeiture order, and a documentation problem if it ever has to be explained.
This site reports that commentary because readers ask, and reports it as commentary: it is not settled law, we are not tax advisers, and it is not an advantage of playing offshore. The legality guide sets out the administrative penalty of 100% of winnings in art. 89 and the fiscal fine in art. 107 § 2 KKS that sit next to any tax question about an offshore win.
The gaming tax on the casino side, and why it shapes the market
The player's 10% is the small number. Art. 74 of the Gambling Act sets the gaming tax the licence holder pays: 12% of turnover on betting, meaning the sum of stakes rather than the margin, and 50% of gross gaming revenue on slots, roulette, dice and card games outside poker tournaments, with lotteries and number games on their own rates between 10% and 25%. Those two figures are the standard explanation for why Polish licensed odds look tight and why the pull of the offshore side persists, and they are also why the Ministry's gaming tax take reached 6,235.6 million PLN in the last full year it has published, with the legal online casino alone contributing 1,361.6 million PLN.
Set against that, a business think tank citing EY estimated the online grey market's turnover in the tens of billions of zloty and put the offshore share of the online casino segment at around 40%, and the Ministry's own estimate of the grey market's share of online gambling fell from 58.6% to 29.1% between the two years it cites. The legal versus offshore comparison puts the two sides on one table, tax row included.
What this means at the payout screen
Licensed Polish bookmaker
Single win up to 2,280 PLN: paid in full. Above it: 10% withheld on the whole win, nothing to file.
Total Casino
Casino games at an EU/EEA licence holder: exempt without a cap. Keep the account history as the certificate of the win.
Offshore casino
No exemption to cite, a rate written for EU/EEA wins, commentary that the income is outside PIT, and forfeiture and undisclosed-income risk on the other side. Not an advantage.
The withdrawal guide covers the mechanics of getting a win to a Polish bank; the tax position of the money is the one above, and a Polish tax adviser is the person to confirm it for a specific case.
Apply it
The casino inside the exemption
Quick answers
How much tax is paid on gambling winnings in Poland
A flat 10% of the win under art. 30 ust. 1 pkt 2 of the PIT act, withheld by the payer with no deduction of costs. Two exemptions in art. 21 remove it: single wins up to 2,280 PLN in lotteries, number games and betting, and casino-type winnings from a licence holder in an EU or EEA state, with no cap.
Are winnings at Total Casino tax free
Yes. Slots, card, dice and roulette games run by a licence holder under the gambling law of an EU or EEA state are exempt under art. 21 ust. 1 pkt 6a lit. b, without a threshold, and Total Casino holds a Polish licence. A certificate of the win from the casino is the recognised proof.
Do I pay tax on winnings from a Curacao casino
The casino exemption is written for EU and EEA licences, and Curacao and Anjouan are outside the EEA, so the exemption does not apply. The 10% rate in art. 30 is itself written for winnings obtained in an EU or EEA state, and a tax law firm argues that winnings from gambling prohibited in Poland fall outside PIT altogether; that is commentary, it does not make the play legal, and the firm itself flags forfeiture and a 75% rate on undisclosed income as the risks on the other side.
Was the tax raised to 15%
No. A rise to 15% was proposed and widely reported, but the consolidated text of the PIT act still reads 10% in art. 30 ust. 1 pkt 2.