Greek gaming market : Ready, steady ...

[MatchMoney]

During the Ministerial Committee held on Wednesday, the Ministry of Finance presented some quite significant adjustments in the new gaming law, due to be imposed in Greece in 2010-Q3.

The Ministry amended its online gaming taxation plans by introducing a 30% tax upon the GROSS PROFIT, instead of 6% upon the Τurnover (that was the initial plan). Maximum 50 online gaming licences will be granted, with a licence duration of 5 years. All Gaming companies' websites are obliged to have a “.gr” ending and operators must be based in Greece. The licence cost hasn't been revealed. The full range of Gaming products will be licenced (Sportsbetting, Poker, Casino, Bingo, Horseracing etc).

The Ministry kept the payout ratio to a minimum of 80%, but altered the upper level of each bet to €2 instead of €5. Finally, the Ministry said that after the draft law being approved by the Ministerial Committee, it will be submitted to the parliament for immediate voting.

OPAP secures a portion of the VLTs to be licensed. However, it is not clear whether its right corresponds to a larger number of terminals than competition and what will have to pay for it (nothing could be a case). The introduction of the 10% tax upon the players' gains is not positive, if there is no tax free level as in OPAP's games or state lottery tickets. Even in such a case though, it will give OPAP's land network a comparative advantage vs the online competition.

It has to be stated that around 200-250 illegal gambling websites offer gaming services and are handling about 2 billion euros of bets each year, while there are several unlicensed bookmakers and operators offering poker and casino games with an annual turnover of up to 2 billion euros

[universal4]

Matchmoney,

Are you the original author of the above since a portion of your post has been copied from another source word-for-word.

Rick
Universal4

[MatchMoney]

Yes, this is me!

[Gabriel_LCP]

Wow I bet those licensing costs will be pretty expensive, since only 50 are being allowed! Its going to be all about the quickest to come up with all of the requirements!

[MatchMoney]

Hm, I would say that it would cost around 1 mil euros for 5 years, which quite ok...

[best.hands]

Its going to be all about the quickest to come up with all of the requirements!

Hmmm.. I am thinking it's all gonna be about who has enough budget to spend for processing those requirements.

Hm, I would say that it would cost around 1 mil euros for 5 years, which quite ok...

quite ok is not totally ok, imo. And, 1 mil euros for 5 years? Wow, you gotta have a first-class strategic plan first before diving into complying all requirements.

[Renee]

So what does the Greek government plan to do to police the "illegal" sites offering online gaming to their country? I.e. companies without a license still taking Greek players?

[MatchMoney]

Hi Renee,

as stated in the law, there will be imprisonment and big fines.

[Renee]

Thanks, but what I meant was.. are they going to be blocking sites like the Italian AAMS or blocking via ISP etc? Not the actual consequences but what they are doing to enforce their stance.

[JoeAdams]

I already heard about this news some time ago that they will only be granting 50 licenses to only gaming companies. Seems too limited so expect its cost at its highest.

[MatchMoney]

The Greek Gaming Bill is set to be voted and it ranges from the granting of online gambling licences (30% taxation on Gross Profits / most probably the limitation of them to 50 is scrapped) to the granting of an exclusive license to state-run gaming firm OPAP to operate 35,000 VLTs. They have decided that in order to bolster the value of OPAP (State owns 34%) so it can, at some point in the future, sell it at a higher price.