Greek legislation against online gambling sites

Are you visiting Greece and planning on betting in your favorite online gambling site? Greek legislation that will come in effect on December 5, prohibits players from accessing their betting accounts, in case their favorite gambling site is one of the sites, which haven’t acquired an operating license in Greece. This is all part of the general gambling regulation that takes part in European Union that has recently led Betfair to quit offering their exchange services in Germany. Nothing is certain though despite the announcement of the Greek gaming commission, which warns players, gambling sites and internet service providers that they will be breaking the law in December and will be fined.

It all started a year ago when Greek lawmakers thought or regulating the online gambling market in Greece, due to millions of euros leaving the country. According to the law in Greece, residents of Greece shouldn’t bet online and should only gamble in the domestic Greek gambling company, OPAP, that also has the gambling monopoly in Greece. However several difficulties prevented the law from coming into effect, mainly because it was quite difficult to tax online gambling sites and in addition because merely a few of them actually applied for a Greek license. The law was quite vague and imprecise about the way the winnings were going to be taxed, thus Greek poker players and online bettors had doubts of the proposed legislation. Greeks continued playing poker, betting on sports and gambling in a high quality and secure casino online with no remorse!

Now, a year later and Greek lawmakers return much stronger this time, as they have already decided on the fines of law-brakers. Unlicensed online gambling sites will be fined 20,000 euros per day during the first week of operation and 40,000 euros per day after that first week. The same applies for the third-party websites that will advertise unlicensed gambling sites with the exception of doubling that fine. Internet service providers (ISPs) that will allow access to the IPs of unlicensed online gambling sites will also asked to pay a fine of 50,000 euros per day during the first 7 days and 100,000 euros each day afterwards, while customers who gamble online in unlicensed sites will be fined 1,000 euros per gambling activity. Fines can reach hundreds of thousands of euros in case gamblers are not adults.

Today 24 gambling sites have acquired a temporary license to operate in Greece but very few of the worldwide popular betting, casino or poker sites. I suppose online gambling in Greece will be much more often in the news’ headlines during the following 30 days, while all of Greek gambling blogs will discuss of the legislation. Subscribe to my blog or follow me in Twitter or Facebook to read the updates of the legislation about online gambling in Greece.