Online Gambling Operators In Greece
The birthplace of democracy is not “liberal” when it comes to online gambling. While, in theory, every form of gambling is legal in Greece and even this country is the host to some of the best casinos in the world, online casinos still have various problems. We will explain what these problems are in this article but we will also talk about how to find the best online casino Greece in this country. Because, while it has its own problems, you can still play at online casinos if you know what to do.
Gambling Laws in Greece. Gambling in Greece is legal under the Law 4002/2011, which refers to land-based as well as to online gambling.The body responsible for the regulation of gambling activities in the country is the Hellenic Gaming Commission which was established by the same law. For several years, Greece, like other state-members of the European Union, has been pressed to open its gambling market for foreign online gambling operators. Despite the fact that the Government took the accusations of protectionism to heart and some progress has been made in the area, the accusations still remain. The birthplace of democracy is not “liberal” when it comes to online gambling. While, in theory, every form of gambling is legal in Greece and even this country is the host to some of the best casinos in the world, online casinos still have various problems.
In 2011 Greece organized 24 interim licenses for online gambling companies, such as William Hill and Ladbrokes, while the details of new laws were being organized. The following year it was decided to essentially scrap this idea and continue to keep a monopoly in the sector though OPAP, as the country had in land based gambling. After all, those operators that were blacklisted during the previous legislation changes don’t even qualify for the opportunity of getting a license, as is the case with UK gambling brand GVC Holdings. Greece Online Casinos. Evidently, online casinos operating or entering the Greek market.
Well, we know what to do and we are ready to share this information with you. Join us on our search for top online casinos Greece and find out how you can participate in online gambling. Casino Greece online games are still available if you know where to look for.
How Do We Find The Top Online Casino Greece Sites?
As always, we start by explaining the criteria we use to evaluate online casinos. Even the best online casino of the world cannot enter our recommended casinos list if it fails to meet these things. Evaluating casino websites in the right way requires years of experience and while we recommend you to use the same criteria, we highly recommend leaving the “selection” job to us. We know how to pick the international online casino and we look for the following things during our reviews:
- Games and providers which are allowed in Greece. We know that the most important thing at casino websites is the quantity and quality of the games. There is a reason why you should prefer online gambling: You get access to thousands of games in different varieties. Therefore, an online casino site must be able to offer lots of games and meet a certain quality level. This is especially important for Greek players, as some providers apply specific restrictions to them. If you are curios what kind of games are available for Greek players come check out our online casino games guide.
- Security and safety casinos for Greek players. We review and recommend only legal casinos. This means the casino must be operating under a reputable license (such as MGA, UKGC, Curacao, and Netherlands Antilles) and working with an independent agency to ensure game fairness. We know the importance of RTP rates and we never recommend to play at a casino that does not offer at least 95% RTP rate.
- Fair bonus offers dedicated to Greece. Everybody loves a good welcome bonusbut nobody wants unfair wagering requirements. We are aware that all bonus funds are actually “virtual” money and you need to complete a requirement to “unlock” them. In this regard, we check how fair the terms of these requirements are, not the offered rates.
- Localized content and payment methods available in Greece. By local content, we mean the ability to view the casino site in the Greek language, for example. Just because you don’t know English must not limit your options. In this regard, the customer service should be offered in Greek too. Moreover, we check for any local payment methods are supported or not – this is especially important for Greece as the government actively prohibits the banks from accepting payments from unlicensed casino sites.
- Professional customer service with support in Greek. You must be able to reach the customer service anytime you want – we expect to get 7/24 support service. In addition, all of your complaints must be solved in a reasonable timeframe. The professionalism of support agents is also important too.
Best Casino Greece Online List: 2020 Version
Don’t worry, you don’t need to read until the end of this article to see the best online casino sites in Greece. You can see all of them in the table below and pick anyone you want – we examined all of these sites according to the criteria we shared above and we recommend them all. You will notice that most of these sites fall into the offshore gambling sites category, which means they don’t have a local license in Greece. Well, there is a reason for that: Greece is not that friendly to foreign operators and while technically allows online casinos, it is nearly impossible to get a license. We will give more information about this topic below. For now, just take a look at our table and familiarize yourself with the brand names. These are the best websites to play casino Greece online poker and casino Greece roulette online games, for example.
Greece is located in Southern Europe and has one of the largest coastlines in the Mediterranean. The country is renowned for its ancient civilization which created the ancient Olympic Games, nearly 3000 years ago in 776 BC. It is no surprise therefore that sports betting has always been common in the region.
In this guide to online sports betting in Greece you can first find a brief history of the industry in the country. Then the current situation of online betting is looked at along with how taxes on winnings will affect you. Following there is a section on how betting sites accommodate Greek customers before finishing up by looking at possible changes in the future.
Controversies with Market Regulation
The most significant piece of Greek gambling legislation came about in 1996. Under the claims of regulating sports betting and gambling in their jurisdiction, the Greek government awarded exclusive bookmaking rights to the State backed company the Greek Organization of Football Prognostics (OPAP). Furthermore while these rights were originally set to expire in 2020, they were later extended to 2030 [1]. This has led to OPAP becoming one of the world’s largest bookmakers.
In addition to causing a large black market to form, due to the lack of competition, the Greek monopoly caused concern among other EU members and frustration among the locked out companies. UK companies Stanleybet, William Hill and Sportingbet all tried to apply separately for Greek licenses between 2004 and 2007, only to have them rejected. The companies argued this breached EU free market laws and Stanleybet chose to go ahead and just open a shop in Athens in November 2008. This was swiftly closed by the authorities [2] although intervention on the part of the EU led to the shop reopening in 2009.
After the monopoly was deemed to be illegal by the EU in 2013 [3], the Greek government agreed to sell a controlling stake in OPAP to a private investment firm. The ruling also resulted in Stanleybet threatening to sue Greece over loss of earnings since their application was rejected in 2004 [4].
Greeks Have a Ton of Betting Options
In order to find alternatives to OPAP’s monopoly of the Greek market a black market quickly emerged. Around the same time, internet betting, casinos and poker started to become more common. This assisted the black market operators and gave Greek citizens the opportunity to bet in their own homes. Realising the growth in the gaming sector the government rushed through laws in 2002 to ban this, resulting in poorly worded legislation which applied to all electronic gaming, not just gambling and covered video games and arcade machines [5].
As economic hardships hit the country the government was forced to repeal these laws in 2010. In 2011 Greece organized 24 interim licenses for online gambling companies, such as William Hill and Ladbrokes, while the details of new laws were being organized. The following year it was decided to essentially scrap this idea and continue to keep a monopoly in the sector though OPAP, as the country had in land based gambling.
This stance on online gaming was included in the 2013 EU ruling that OPAP’s monopoly was illegal [6] after concerns about the online market were raised by operators including Bwin.Pary and Betfair. OPAP reported a 72% drop in profits in 2013 blamed on the loss their tax-free status and that Greek bettors were either abandoning online gambling completely or using international operators.
Greek Gambling Taxes
The taxation laws for Greek sports-bettors were changed in 2013. Prior to then a flat 10% tax applied to all gambling winnings. The change brought in a tiered system where winnings between €100 and €500 were taxed at 15% and winning above that threshold were taxed at 20%. The good news for small stakes bettors is that winnings below €100 are now tax free. The move was intended to encourage an increase in small stakes bettors who may have previously been put off by the flat tax rate.
Of course if you can get onto a non-OPAP site there is no framework in place to tax you on your winnings through the site, so paying these taxes will be your own responsibility.
Online Gambling Operators In Greece Europe
How Accessible are Online Bookmakers for Greek Customers
Despite the current Greek law only supporting OPAP, most of the top online bookmakers accept Greek customers and many offer Greek language support on their websites. These are mainly the large UK based companies who obtained the 2011 interim licenses and set their sites up to cater for Greek customers. The downside is you may struggle to find operators who offer customer support in Greek.
Of course there are no problems using Euros on any reputable sites. Credit card deposits can be made with Visa or MasterCard and there are no problems with Greek banks processing these transactions. Alternatively you could use one of the web wallets like NETeller or Skrill for fast transactions.
The Future of Online Sports Betting in Greece
As of yet there has been no movement in response to the EU’s ruling in 2013, with regards to letting in new operators. The government has given up the majority of their stake in OPAP and removed its tax free status. In order to recover the ongoing income they will lose from this you would imagine the next stage is to get new operators in the country and start to apply charges and taxes to them.
While these legislative changes are still pending, Greek bettors are able to choose from a huge selection of online betting sites. If more operators are licensed, this will lead to greater competition, which can only be a positive for Greek punters. Watch this space.
References
Online Gambling Operators In Greece Cyprus
[1]EU OKs Greek Plan to Extend OPAP Exclusive Rights – Greek Reporter
[2]Greece Shuts Down Stanleybet’s Outlets – Reuters
[3]CJEU Rules on Issue That Prevents UK Betting Companies From Entering Greek Market – Out-law.com
[4]Stanleybet Threatens to Sue Greece Over Gambling Monopoly – Reuters
[5]In Greece, Use a Gameboy and go to Jail – CNet
[6]OPAP Loses EU Court Case Over Greek Gambling Monoploy – Bloomberg