Payment provider BLIK to block illegal gambling transactions in Poland
The platform will block payments linked to operators on Poland’s register of illegal gambling sites.
Poland. The Polish mobile payment provider BLIK has introduced a new measure to block transactions connected to illegal gambling websites, both within the country and abroad. Effective from September 1, the block is triggered when a payment is linked to a domain listed in the Ministry of Finance’s register of illegal gambling sites.
BLIK is one of Poland’s most widely used payment systems, processing 2.9bn transactions worth PLN 441.5bn (€102bn) in 2025. Earlier this year, it joined a pan‑European initiative designed to connect national payment systems and enable cross‑border transfers.
It diplomatically noted that some gaming platforms may be legal in the jurisdictions where they are registered but prohibited in Poland. This has allowed Polish users to make payments to operators not authorised to provide gambling services domestically, it said.
“We decided to introduce an additional mechanism to block transactions conducted by entities that are illegal under Polish law,” Monika Król, Vice President of BLIK, told the Polish state news agency PAP.
The company now automatically checks the domain linked to each transaction against the Finance Ministry’s register, and if the domain appears on the list, payment is declined. The register currently contains more than 55,000 domains, with around 700 new entries added each month.
Since 2017, most online gambling in Poland has been subject to a state monopoly, with sports betting and promotional lotteries exempt from this framework. However, Poland’s grey market for online gambling has contracted sharply in recent years. Unlicensed operators accounted for an estimated 29.1 per cent of the market in 2024, down from 58.6 per cent in 2017.
BLIK’s announcement comes as the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) conducts a new round of social responsibility checks on bookmakers in Poland. The assessments will cover leading licensed sports betting operators on the Polish market, such as Fortuna, STS, Superbet, Bukmachers, E-toto Bukmachers and LV Bet.
The scope of the review, which the government described as routine, will extend across all aspects of bookmakers’ operations, from websites to mobile applications, and will include scrutiny of the terms and conditions that govern customer agreements. Artificial intelligence systems will be used to identify potential shortcomings. UOKiK has said that it will be examining whether companies are engaging in so-called dark patterns designed to manipulate consumer behaviour through user interface design, messaging or incentives.
