Polish BLIK system to block payments to illegal gambling sites

From 1 September 2024 the BLIK payment system will automatically block transactions directed to online gambling services that are prohibited under Polish law. The operator, Polski Standard Płatności, received approval from the National Bank of Poland to connect BLIK via an API to the Ministry of Finance’s register of banned gambling domains. When a payment is attempted, the system checks the destination URL against the register; if it appears, the transaction is declined. The measure applies to both domestic and foreign settlement agents and aims to enforce the country’s gambling regulations, which require that only licensed operators pay taxes in Poland. The share of the illegal gambling “grey zone” has fallen from 58.6 % in 2017 to 29.1 % in 2024, with more than 55 000 prohibited domains listed and about 700 new entries added each month.