Prompted by the so-called gambling affair in which businessmen are said to have attempted to influence the Polish government, Prime Minister Donald Tusk now plans to ban gambling machines. An absurd idea, writes the news magazine Newsweek Polska:

“In the next five years amusement arcades with … so-called one-armed bandits are to disappear. In the past these have been the fastest-growing segment within the gambling sector with proceeds of seven to eight billion złoty [roughly 1.8 billion euros]. … It looks as if a distinction were being made between good and bad gambling.

Bad gambling is gambling … that can no longer be administered by the government, and which brings its owners disproportionately large incomes compared with what the state earns through taxes. Good gambling, by contrast, is the one that is strictly regulated by the state [for example casinos] and which brings the state considerably more money.”