2011 Greek Gambling Laws May Enable Internet Gambling to Create $1.3 Billion Revenue

Inspiring reforms within Greece, which include revisions to Greek gambling laws, should be put into practice within the next half year. They are predicted to turn around the sick Greek economy and even create growth within 2011.

In addition to the Greek government finally privatizing the lottery and sports betting monopoly OPAP and ODIE, the government intends to amend online gambling laws in Greece to provide additional momentum to the entire progression.

While all internet gambling is forbidden in Greece, the unlawful gambling market has an estimated value of $5.3 billion (€4 billion). The Greek government desires to obtain a piece of this enormous, profitable marketplace. Greek legislatures have declared an intention to establish internet gambling regulations during the beginning of 2011.

This is absolutely necessary since early this year the Greek economy endured a tremendous upheaval as a result of uncontrolled expenses and loans. Coupled with a failure to create fiscal reforms, the nation’s debt shot to $413.6 billion (€300 billion). This includes a $144.4 billion (€110 billion) bailout from the European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). They expect revisions to internet gambling laws in Greece to generate about $1.3 billion (€990 million) during the course of the next two or three years.

A collateral benefit to permitting internet gambling in Greece will be aligning the nation with EU treaties. Greece has already received large financial penalties for permitting OPAP to be the nation’s sole provider of low stake slot games. This ongoing issue should soon be resolved since the Greek government is now intending to remove the restrictions on slot games which have been effective since 2002.

Assuming the Greek gaming industry gets permission in 2011, a Gambling Supervision Commission will be established to closely monitor the gambling industry.