Polish prosecutors to re-launch probe into 2009 gambling scandal

Poland’s National Public Prosecutor’s Office is going to re-investigate a gambling scandal that broke out in 2009, during the tenure of the previous government, according to the country’s public broadcaster TVP.

A prosecutor who conducted the first investigation intended to bring charges against a deputy finance minister of the previous regime, but he was removed from the investigation under unclear circumstances, reports TVP.

National Public Prosecutor Bogdan Święczkowski has decided to conduct the investigation once again after analysing the case files, according to the broadcaster.

The renewed investigation would look into decisions on the registration of slot machines, taken by finance ministry officials from 2006 to 2009.

The gambling affair sent political shockwaves across the nation and hurt the reputation of the former government of Donald Tusk, who is now president of the European Council.

The scandal broke out after Poland’s Rzeczpospolita daily reported that some of Tusk’s ministers met with gambling industry representatives in the summer of 2009 and later lobbied to stop proposed tax hikes on betting.

Some of the government’s top officials handed in their resignations in the wake of the scandal, including then-Interior Minister and Deputy PM Grzegorz Schetyna, the current leader of the opposition Civic Platform (PO) party.

The District Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw decided to close down the investigation into the scandal in April 2011 after it concluded there was insufficient evidence to bring a criminal case to court.