Gambling Organizations Challenge Greek Online Gambling Legislation

The Remote Gambling Association (RGA) and the European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) have filed a serious complaint against the Greek government with regards to the new gambling legislation recently passed by the Greek government.

The new legislation is part of a new wave of commercial and social legislation that the Greek government has recently approved as part of its efforts to fight the growing recession and the national debt that is spiraling out of control.

The RGA and EGBA filed their complaint with the European Commission claiming the new legislation has anti-competitive restrictions that place unjustified restrictions and financial burdens on new online gaming operators attempting to serve the Greek market.

The new legislation includes such restrictions of forcing operators to set up permanent offices in Greece and limits their ability of using Greek banks for financial transactions.

In addition the new tax regime may force existing operators to pay retroactive taxes for any revenues generated from Greek gamblers even though they were not legally obliged to pay such taxes during the period of time they generated said revenues.

The new law will also raise the age of participation and will restrict operators from providing their online gambling services to anyone below the new age limit, even though those people count as adults in Greece for all other intended purposes.

The RGA and EGBA state that many different parts of the new legislation violate European Union laws and that although they understand that Greece is economically in dire straits, it does not justify it violating EU fair competition laws and general principles of fairness such as avoiding retroactive impositions and charges.