GAMBLING AS PART OF TRANSACTIONS CONCLUDED ON THE FINANCIAL MARKET

Gambling, often identified as some sort of speculation, was from the beginning one of the factors contributing to the development of modern financial markets. The author of this paper, however, is not going to analyze the issue of gambling on the classical stock-exchange market, but is going to focus on two groups of transactions related with the financial market: derivatives and virtual currencies. Derivatives are some sort of financial instruments, characterized by a very high level of randomness and risks, which legal status is not clear. It is important to underline that there are some opinions postulating the recognition of this group of instruments simply as a game or a bet within the meaning of the polish Act of 19 November 2009. The second component of the article – virtual currency – which can be regarded as a hidden form of gambling growing in the Internet, is also a legal construction that escapes both from the national and international regulations. This article, on the example of chosen financial instruments, is going to verify the thesis supposing that the issue of gambling is reflected also in selected forms of transactions in the financial market, encouraging potential participants by the element of randomness and a high level of risk, which makes these transactions very similar to classical gambling.