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Poland’s national lottery operator and online casino monopoly Totalizator Sportowy has dismissed the president of its management board over allegations of political cronyism.

Polish state assets minister Jakub Jaworowski announced that the dismissal of lottery president Rafał Krzemień was motivated by “failing to comply with the highest standards” with regards to appointing regional directors at the company.  

Krzemień was dismissed shortly after local media reported that a number of persons with political ties to Poland’s ruling parties were appointed to serve as Totalizator Sportowy’s regional directors, replacing managers associated with the previous cabinet. 

Among the new appointees were a number of individual with political ties to some of the three parties from the current ruling coalition government: the Civic Platform (Platforma Obywatelska), party of Prime Minister Donald Tusk; the New Left (Nowa Lewica) party; and the Polish People’s Party (Polskie Stronnictwo Ludowe). 

“Even though, in the opinion of the supervisory board, the law and even internal regulations were not broken [by those appointments], the highest standards were not maintained, which I personally agree with, because there were no open recruitment procedures for the positions of regional directors of Totalizator Sportowy,” the minister said, as quoted by local news agency PAP. 

As Totalizator Sportowy is fully owned by the Polish state, members of the company’s supervisory board are appointed by the Minister of State Assets. 

Until the board selects the company's new president, Mariusz Błaszkiewicz, Totalizator Sportowy's management board member responsible for finances and investments will serve as its acting president.  

The lottery operator has announced in a statement that it is preparing new procedures to select regional directors and their deputies. 

In December 2023, Tusk formed a new centrist government, ousting the previous right-wing cabinet led by the Law and Justice party, which ruled Poland between 2015 and 2023. 

Krzemień was named Totalizator Sportowy’s president in March 2024. 

Prior to his appointment, he worked as the president of the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw, a municipally-owned firm in the Polish capital, which is also governed locally by Tusk’s Civic Platform party. 

Separately, under the new government, Polish law enforcement authorities continue to investigate Totalizator Sportowy’s activities under its previous management. 

In May, the lottery operator announced that officers from the country’s Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (Centralne Biuro Antykorupcyjne) seized documents from the firm’s headquarters. 

The move was related to a probe initiated by a local prosecutor’s office and concerns a case of potential corruption dating to between 2017 and 2021. At that time, the state-owned company was managed by executives close to the then ruling Law and Justice party. 

The nation’s amended gambling law, which entered into force in 2017, designated Totalizator Sportowy as the only entity allowed to operate slot machines outside casinos and the firm is also the only legal operator of a Poland-based online casino.