You know, we may wanna start paying attention to Europe. Here in the US, we’re screaming pretty constantly, re: poker, “regulate, regulate, regulate!” And yet across the pond these days, there seems to be a lot of, “whoa, maybe not so much!”

One current hotspot in the European poker theater: Hungary. So much so that players are staging protests — peaceful poker tournaments in Budapest subway stations — to express their dismay with recent amendments to Hungary’s Gambling Act.

photo: Veronika Gulyas

Apparently, the Hungarian Poker Association is a bit tilted by new regulations put on poker clubs, and a new tax on poker winnings … that some say are meant to push players out of the clubs and force them into Hungarian casinos. (They’ve already got five, and a new Hard Rock Casino is set to open in 2012.)

Interestingly enough, according to the Wall Street Journal “New Europe” blog linked to above, the one kinda poker you can play tax-free is mobile-phone poker, where it costs just $2/day for the right to play for real money.

UPDATE: A video of the protest (in Hungarian):

(Thanks, PokerString!)