In Poland, You Can Bet Gambling Pays Off in More Ways Than One

When the lottery drawings appeared on television, the 40-year-old welder insisted that his two-room apartment be stilled, the children taken out of doors.

And when he received his small monthly salary of 30,000 zlotys, his wife knew that at least 2,500 would have to be set aside for bets.

Last month the fanatical gambling of Zygmunt, a lanky, dark-haired man from the town of Radomsko, finally paid off: he won a record 17,115,537 zlotys, or about $107,000, from Toto-Lotek, Poland’s state-run lottery.

So large were the winnings--and so resentful the public mood toward millionaires--that Zygmunt felt obliged to ask that his full name not be revealed.

Hooked on Gambling

His story, however, has been widely publicized here, driving home a message that most Poles already know: Whatever its commitment to socialism, Poland’s communist-run state, and much of its working class, are hooked on gambling.

“Our observation is that this is not against the ideals of socialism,” said Jerzy Borkowski, director of the state gambling company Totalizator Sportowy. “It is a real social entertainment.”

Gambling is also a major government money-earner. Last year, Poles spent more than $100 million seeking quick riches on Toto-Lotek and state-run horse races in Warsaw.

Totalizator was the largest tax contributor to the state budget in 1984 and ranks among the top 20 companies in Poland in sales--not far behind the state liquor monopoly, which habitually places first.

‘Nothing Better to Do’

“Isn’t this better than turning to our sole competitor, which is the state alcohol monopoly?” Jozef Bester, another lottery official, asked the weekly newspaper Polityka.

Habitual gamblers echo his argument. In Warsaw, said Hanna, a 39-year-old woman who plays the horses weekly, “there’s simply nothing better to do, especially on the weekend.”

Of course, not all of Poland’s gambling is state-managed. As in most other areas of national life, an underground network flourishes for gambling that ranges from weekly poker games among friends to clandestine casinos.

A number of top gamblers make their living by tapping the neighborhood games of poker and dice, and one man, known to most players only as “Horse,” is famous around the country for his poker skills.

Gambler as Folk Hero

“Everybody knows about ‘Horse,’ and most everyone has lost some money to him,” said one regular Warsaw player. “He’s become a kind of folk hero.”

Although the state games rarely offer such romance, the pools and the stakes are far larger. In Warsaw, bettors can choose from three numbers games, a lottery and two sports betting pools offering cash prizes as well as automobiles, television sets and other prized household goods.

The scarcity of appliances on the Polish market--and their high prices--seem to inspire many sober-minded Poles to become gamblers, Borkowski said. “People are really interested by the items like televisions because our market is way short of these goods,” he said.

Betting on British soccer teams also seems to have a curious appeal. Toto-Lotek offers weekly pools on the Polish and English leagues, and betting on the foreign teams is twice as heavy, Borkowski said. “It makes perfect sense,” he added. “English teams are nice and consistent. Polish teams tend to produce nasty surprises.”

Bets Vary

Toto-Lotek maintains its own chain of kiosks to accept bets and wins regular customers by accepting stakes of as low as 4 zlotys, less than 1 cent. Borkowski said a typical bettor is a worker who spends 500 to 1,000 zlotys, or $3 to $6, a week, but that private tradesmen or groups of bettors who work together regularly place wagers of $600 or more.

Like every regular game, the twice-weekly drawings inspire legions of the compulsive.

“I started to get addicted to that game and can’t give it up,” said a letter, from “Jozef K. of Jastrowie,” sent to Toto-Lotek and later published in Polityka. “I don’t want to win millions. . . . I’m only asking to win some of your good prizes, any car and a TV set. If you think that’s too much, then at least the TV set, which I really want but can’t afford.”

“Dear management, would you please show mercy on me and let me win this time?” asked a letter Polityka published. “I am a pensioner and invalid and after so many years of playing I would be very happy getting that prize, because the disease I’ve had now for so long could finally be cured.”

Horse Races Popular

Borkowski conceded that some bettors may get carried away, but argued that the normally paternalistic Polish state need not concern itself with compulsive gamblers. “Our advertising doesn’t push people to spend the last zloty,” he said. “When people write and ask us what happened to all their losses, we point out the sports facilities our revenues are building.”

Many of the biggest gamblers--and losers--in fact seem to pass up Toto-Lotek’s games for the glamour of the Warsaw horse track, where races are held three times a week through the summer in a crumbling but stately pre-World War II complex.

Horse racing has a 142-year history in Poland, and communist authorities kept the track and betting windows open even in the postwar years when strict Stalinist puritanism reigned in other areas of life. Today 18 state-run horse stables breed and maintain about 700 racehorses, and the 72 yearly racing days draw crowds of 15,000 to 50,000.

At the track, little seems to have changed since the class-conscious prewar days. Spectators are divided into a grandstand, with an admission price of 20 zlotys, and a smaller pavilion and betting house costing 50 zlotys to enter.

Special Passes Required

Within the pricier pavilion, in turn, are three inner chambers of increasing exclusivity entered only with special passes: a “journalists’ and VIP room” reached with a blue ticket, a “manager’s box” reached with a red medallion and a “government box,” entered by invitation only.