Located in the southern part of the Balkan Peninsula, Greece is often considered the Cradle of Western Civilization, and rightfully so. The country has made significant contributions to various fields such as mathematics, architecture, philosophy, medicine, art, literature, and astronomy. The impact of its rich heritage on Western culture is impossible to deny.
Given all this, it is unsurprising that the history of gambling in Greece also dates back to antiquity. An ancient Greek myth even describes how Hades, Poseidon, and Zeus played dice to divide the three realms (the underworld, sea, and earth) among themselves. Gambling remains a popular activity among Greeks in modern times, with the number of land-based casino visits escalating to 2.85 million in 2017 alone. In the same year, the local gambling industry was expected to generate €260 million in gaming revenue.
The country’s gambling industry was subject to a state monopoly for over half a century, starting with the launch of the Greek Organization of Football Prognostics (OPAP) in 1958. When online gambling started to gain prominence at the turn of the 21st century, Greece imposed a blanket ban on such activities in an attempt to battle organized crime and gambling-related harm.
The local government lifted the ban in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis and sold its remaining stake in OPAP. The company was privatized but retained its monopoly over the local online gambling sector. After years of pressure from the European Union (EU), Greece finally moved to liberalize and re-regulate its market, opening it to foreign competition in 2019.
The local regulator, the Hellenic Gaming Commission, issued the first batch of online gambling licenses in 2021. Greek gamblers can now legally enjoy a wide range of products over the internet, including online casino games, sports wagering, and poker. The government extended OPAP’s monopoly on lotteries and land-based video gaming terminals until 2030.
Laws That Govern the Greek Gambling Industry
Law № 4002/2011 is the primary piece of legislation that governs and regulates the gambling industry in Greece. It contains a legal definition of games of chance, explaining in Article 25 that these are games whose outcome depends either partially or entirely on chance. Additionally, players must stake money or other assets of value on the outcomes to potentially secure a financial gain. The legislation’s provisions apply to sports betting, amusement-skill games, gaming machines, and online casino games.
Establishment of the Hellenic Gaming Commission
OPAP’s Monopoly EndsSocial Responsibility and Gambling Restrictions in Greece
Greek-licensed gambling businesses must comply with various social responsibility policies or risk having their licenses revoked. Each HGC licensee must ensure compliance with the minimum legal gambling age in Greece. Companies must verify all customer accounts to confirm that account holders are at least 21 years old in line with local legislation.
Both land-based and online licensees must promote responsible gambling. Brick-and-mortar gaming venues, in particular, are expected to maintain a self-exclusion database and prevent excluded individuals from entering their premises. Gamblers should have access to information about different treatment services that can help them overcome gambling addiction. Terrestrial casinos and betting shops must prominently display this information so that all customers can easily see it.
Responsible Gambling Policies
Restrictions on RNG GamesPolicies on Gambling Advertising in Greece
Greek legislation does not entirely prohibit the marketing of gambling services as long as marketers do so in a socially responsible manner. The regulation of such ads falls within the scope of Law № 4002/2011. Gambling advertisers must ensure high levels of consumer protection and comply with certain restrictions. Further measures came into force following the approval of Decision № 79292 in August 2020.
To begin with, the operators should not market their services in a way that encourages the target audience to actively participate in gambling activities. Furthermore, the advertisements must not lure the audience into gambling with ambiguous promises of significant returns. Another limitation concerns the normalization of gambling and the presentation of such activities as commonplace.
The ads must not draw attention to the fact that a large portion of the tax proceeds the state collects from gambling goes toward good causes or charities. Licensed operators can advertise slots only on their websites. Advertising other randomly generated games via social media platforms is possible as long as the ads target only individuals over the age of 21.
Gambling ads cannot feature underage persons or air during programs intended for minors. Finally, all marketing content should contain references to the Greek regulator and clearly state the minimum legal age requirement for gambling participation.
Anti-Money Laundering Policies and Payment Restrictions
Greek law also aims to prevent illegal activities like terrorist financing and money laundering (AML). It requires all licensed gambling operators to handle local customers’ payments via financial institutions and payment processors established in Greece, member states of the EU, or the European Economic Area. Greeks who play slot machines can fund their sessions solely with cash (coins or bills) or prepaid cards.
Banks based in Greece must refrain from processing payments to and from unauthorized providers of online chance-based games. The use of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum for betting purposes also violates the current Greek legislation. According to the Hellenic Gaming Commission, such decentralized currencies lack transparency and facilitate illegal transactions since they are outside the legal scope of any government or financial institution.
All authorized gambling firms on the Greek market must comply with the Law № 4557/2018 on the Prevention and Suppression of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing. Debts incurred through gambling are not enforceable in this jurisdiction.
Sanctions for Violations of Greek Gambling Laws
Servicing the local market without the necessary authorization is considered a criminal offense in Greece. Article 52 of Law № 4002/2011 describes in detail the penalties imposed on violators. The country’s authorities will first attempt to identify and locate the Chief Executive Officer and the board members of the violating gambling company. As legal representatives of the unlicensed firms, they will be deemed the perpetrators of the offense.
Paragraph 3 of the same article stipulates that Greek nationals found guilty of participating in illegal chance games might face penalties of up to three months in prison and fines ranging from €5,000 to €20,000. However, Greek players who participate in gambling activities at unauthorized offshore sites rarely face prosecution. Legal repercussions mostly affect the violating operators only.
With that said, the most common enforcement action in Greece is blacklisting the domains of illegal gambling firms. The Hellenic Gaming Commission is very active in this respect. The regulator blacklisted as many as 466 unauthorized websites in 2016 alone. At the time of writing, the number has skyrocketed to 2,852 blocked websites.
Conclusion
To wrap things up, the recent market liberalization has had a positive effect on the online gambling sector in Greece. Locals now have a choice of more than a dozen fully licensed gaming and betting sites that have made it to the whitelist of the Hellenic Gaming Commission. Our only concern is that the high tax rates imposed on online licensees might dissuade other gambling firms from pursuing locally issued permits, which could impede further growth of Greece’s industry.
Responsible Gambling Policies
Online licensees must include a responsible gambling page on their websites. They should require Greek customers to set mandatory limits on session length, monetary losses, and deposits. Registrants will be unable to wager, transfer funds, or otherwise use their accounts if they fail to set these limits in advance.
Greek-licensed operators must alert customers via notifications when they reach 80% of their limits. The software automatically logs players out when they reach 100% of their individual loss limit. A patron cannot bet or top up their account until the daily, weekly, or monthly limit expires.
The maximum duration of a gaming session cannot exceed 24 consecutive hours. Online customers should be able to self-exclude temporarily or permanently and impose 24-hour breaks from gambling. All individuals who request self-exclusion are placed on the HGC Record of Excluded Persons and remain there until their exclusion period ends. Greek license holders must ensure that prospective customers are not listed in the exclusion database.