All of this may happen due to a complaint made to the European Commission by the Polish  Chamber of Commerce of Producers and Operators of Amusement Equipment, which associates the owners of one-armed bandit slot machines. "This is a complaint against the Republic of Poland that accuses it of a serious violation of the European Union law in regards to the obligatory notification principle (which stipulates that European Commission always has to be informed about the implementation of new laws – edit.). The complainant maintains that Poland does not observe the notification procedure", says the document analyzed by “Wprost”. The lack of such notification is only seemingly unimportant. In 2002 Greek government passed a law making slot machines illegal without informing European Commission about this decision. Charges against this law were brought first to the European Commission and afterwards to the Court of Justice of the European Union. Greece obtained a crushing verdict: 31,799 euro fine for every day of delay in amending the law. “The fine was imposed in June 2009 and it has not been paid yet by the Greeks,” says the Head of the Anti-dumping Bureau from the international law firm Hammonds, who represented Greek association of the owners of one-armed bandit machines before the European Union and the Court of Justice of the European Union. The case of the Greek gambling law is important for Poland in this respect that the Polish owners of one-armed bandit machines have hired Hammonds as well. “The situation of Greece is analogous to the current situation of Poland and the Hammonds lawyers indeed work for us,” says the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce of Producers and Operators of Amusement Equipment Stanisław Matuszewski. The fact that the Polish government may land itself in trouble by introducing the new gambling law can be shown by some other premises as well. First of all, according to our sources it turns out that the European Commission officials reminded Poland about the obligatory notification principal as early as during the PiS (Law and Justice) rule. “Wprost” discovered an e-mail sent by the European Commission to the regulation department of the Ministry of Economy the role of which is to participate in the notification process. “Could you inform us at which stage is the draft now (gambling law – edit.) and will it be notified? As you know, the failure to notify the European Commission about the technical regulations and those concerning Information Society Services results in legal consequences” – we read in the letter signed by Florent Herliz. The e-mail was sent on 23rd July 2007.

Secondly, also the Polish Ministry of Economy was aware of the notification obligation. However, it had its hands tied being the only link connecting the authors of the gambling law, i.e. Ministry of Finance, and the European Commission. "Wprost" determined that the Ministry of Economy admonished the Ministry of Finance as many as six times to fill in the notification form: on 11 May 2007, 3 August 2007, 11 May 2009, 24 June 2009, 30 October 2009 and 4 November 2009 r. Every time these reminders included a warning against the consequences of failing to notify the European Commission about the introduction of new laws. What are these consequences? For instance, the entanglement of the Polish government with the legal process with the owners of one-armed bandit machines during which it will be impossible to cite the new gambling law! “According to the ruling on this case made by the Court of Justice of the European Union the failure to fulfil the duty of notification results in a non-compliance with a technical regulation and its deprivation of binding force in regards to natural persons and legal persons in proceedings before the state court” – says the message “Wprost” received from the Ministry of Economy. The Ministry of Finance has not answered our questions.

However, it will have to answer the questions posed by the European Commission and possibly the Court of Justice of the European Union. "In the case of a lodged complaint about the regulations of the gambling law (…) the government should be represented by the Ministry of Finance as the author of the disputable draft" – explains the Ministry of Economy. Lawyers working for the Polish owners of slot machines are sure they are going to win in Brussels. “It seems to me that the Polish government will take similar consequences to those suffered by the Greek government. The proceedings against Poland instituted by the European Commission may find the violation of the binding rules and prescribe following changes: withdrawal of the binding law, waiting for the opinion of the European Commission, submission to the notification procedure and only afterwards passing it to the state parliament. If Poland does not comply with these directives, the case will probably be brought to court and I am sure that Poland will not hit the jackpot,” says Akritidis to “Wprost”.