Greek Government Approves Online Gambling Legislation

The Greek government has had a lot to deal with in recent months. Its biggest problem being the growing financial disaster that has plagued the country and would have paralyzed its economy, if it was not for the help of its EU friends that bailed it out by offering an aid package after aid package.

Therefore it is no surprise that the government is constantly trying to create new streams of revenue for the depleting budget the state has to work with. One of the solutions suggested was to regulate and tax the online gambling market.

The Greeks like to gamble and are considered avid sports gamblers and poker players. However the online gambling market has remained unregulated allowing loads of Greek punters to wager online with foreign operators that offered no license fees or tax payments to the Greek government.

This situation created a problem where hard earned Greek Euros were spent with foreign operators and none of the money was coming back to the economically stricken country.

The Greek government tried desperately to come to an understanding regarding eGaming legislation and after a lot of back-and-forth that included different ideas for taxation including ideas for turnover tax that were rejected and eventually settled on a gross profits tax that was accepted by all parties.

The bill was also delayed for months because there was no agreement on whether a “black period” should be imposed on operators currently serving the Greek people without a license, but after much deliberation it was decided against it.

Now that the bill is finally approved it has encountered new opposition from the EU as the European Commission declared that the new Greek bill is not complying with EU laws with regards to OPAP that is holding a state monopoly over bookmaking.