Delay for Greek Online Gambling Laws Again

April 23, 2011 | News Category: Gaming Law

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The Greek government has been working hard to comply with the European Commission's regulations in order to legalize and regulate online gambling in Greece. The country is in a particularly difficult financial position at the moment, and has been hoping that the legalization of online gambling would bring in the much needed revenues that would give the country some financial relief.

Greece has been working on the situation for quite a while now, and had not yet managed to come up with an online gambling bill that was approved by the European Commission.

Earlier this year, Greek government officials reported on plans to offer about fifty gambling licenses, allowing foreign online gambling companies to offer their online gambling operations in Greece. The licenses that would have been offered also included a large number of video lottery terminals that would be set up in both pubs and clubs before the end of this year. At the time, the government official noted: "The bill is expected to be voted within the first quarter of the year. Our aim is to tender the licenses by the end of the year."

However, all did not go as planned by the Greek government. The European Commission did not approve the draft online gambling bill that was sent to them, which meant that Greece had to begin the whole process again. Since it takes quite some time for the European Commission's approval process to take place, Greece asked if their new draft submission could be seen earlier than proposed so that they could move forward faster with the regulation of online gambling.

The European Commission has not agreed to put this on the fast track, and it seems as if Greece will have to wait to present the revised online gambling draft bill on June 6th, 2011. The entire process takes around three months to be completed, which could mean that Greece may not be ready to introduce the new laws before the end of 2011, even if the European Commission approves the draft in its entirety.

The Greek government will simply sink further into debt while this delay takes place, putting the country into a worse financial position than before. Instead of being able to pay back loan, and lower interest charges, these will be raised instead.

The Greek Finance Ministry expects to make around 700 million Euro a year from opening the market and regulating online gambling. There have also been discussions as to whether it may be a good financial proposition for OPAP, the Greek gambling monopoly, to be privatized at this time. It has been said that OPAP may help to bail out the Greek government at this time.