AnalysisGREECE
GREECE: VITAL STATISTICS Capital: Athens Population: 10,749,943 Land Area: 131,957
sq.km Median age: 42.2 years Languages: Greek 99% (official). Other includes English and French Ethnic Groups: Greek (93%), other (7%) Religions: Greek Orthodox (98%), Muslim (1.3%) and other (0.7%) Currency: Euro Government: Parliamentary Republic Chief of State: President Karolos Papoulias(since 2005) Head of Government: Prime Minister Georgios Andreas Papandreou (since 2009) Cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president on recommendation of the Prime Minsiter. Elections: President elected by parliament for a five year term. Last election held in February 2010 next to be held in 2015. Presdient appoints leader of the party securing plurality of vote in election to become prime minister and form a government.
GREECE AT A GLANCE: CASINOS:
CASINO SLOTS: CASINO TABLES: CASINO REVENUE:
9
4,410 414
€513.4m
taxation rights on the online casino’s gross revenue and on VLTs will be the same as the taxation rights on actual casinos who presently pay 33 per cent.
“Further the government has not specified if the wagers of VLTs must be 23 years old just like it is in force in actual casinos. Moreover the proposals regarding online casinos do not include any €12 entrance fee as it does for actual casinos. Another unspecified point within the plan regards the offsets to the society.”
The OESIK is now calling for the immediate prohibition of unauthorised online casinos and is proposing that the government follows the example of the Belgian and Estonian government to confer to the actual casino companies the right to extend their licenses and offer online gambling services.
THE CASINO MARKET Greek’s history in the gaming sector stretches back to the ancient Greeks and their favourite pastime of playing games of chance particularly in the upper classes. Dice, cock fighting and sporting events were key entertainment games and dice later became so popular even residents created associations specifically for gaming. The first casinos were born via the myth of Fortune, the goddess of chance, who loved creating games of chance and later built locations where they could play her games.
The earliest casino to operate in Greece was established in 1928 in the region of Loutraki, the popular spa and holiday resort and gateway to the Peloponnese. The first law concerning casinos was released back in the 1960s. At the time casinos were referred to as ‘international type of club of entertainment and games of chance’ and they were founded under a law governed by the Greek state, the Greek Tourism Organisation and civilian and German contractor Dr Hartmann Freiherr von Richthoffen who had the exclusive rights on the two casinos in Rhodes and Corfu for 20 years.
introducing any regulations or controlling and supervising the market.
The Hellenic Federation of Casino Employee’s Unions (OESIK) has submitted a resolution asking the government to ban the illegal operators and also establish the gambling supervision commission with participation of the trade union representatives. They say the change to
the Greek gambling law was planned without consulting the unions.
OESIK represents some 5,000 employees in Greece and was founded in 1998. President John Logothetis said: “The proposals create an environment of unfair competition and will lead to the unemployment of approximately 2,500 workers in the field. Specifically, it is not clarified in the proposals whether the
G3 I JUNE 2011 I PAGE 41
The draft bill was opened public
consultation during the last week of January and after
the submission of all views the Ministry of Finance converted the bill which was
finally completed on March 9th.
At the time and up until 1994 the law only permitted three state run casinos the first of which to open was the Mont Parnes Casino located a few kilometres from Athens followed by Corfu’s Archilleon Casino and then Rhodes.
In 1994 further licenses were granted and 12 in total were released. The Mont Parnes casino at the time was operated by the state run Tourism Development Company, a real estate asset manager acting in between the public and private sector. In June 2001 the Hellenic Casino Parnes SA was set up as the company’s 100 per cent subsidiary with the aim of
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