Focus GREECE MARKET REPORT
player card to participate to identify player’s age, tax identification number, flow of money and any other restrictions set.
• There will be no cap on the payout rate for online casinos however there will be a payout floor – a minimum rate that the casinos must pay out. Online casinos and low stake gambling machines would both be required to have a payout rate of at least 80 per cent.
• Tax rate would be set at 30 per cent on gross profits of each operator and given to the State on a quarterly basis. There is also a 10 per cent tax on player gains to be imposed on both VLTs and internet betting.
• It would also require the set up of a Gambling Control Commission which would regulate and control the sector. Each system would be monitored and connected to a central monitoring system. The regulator would cooperate with the ISPs to block unauthorised sites and will set up live monitoring systems.
• Minors are prohibited access to any gambling locations.
• Any operators interested in tendering for licences must abstain from operating or advertising in Greece once the bill is law. This is similar to the ‘black period’ proposed by the Danish authorities where all interested parties must effectively disappear from Greece to be eligible for a licence.
There are currently around 250 unregulated gambling websites operating in Greece. If the new bill is passed by the EC, licenses will be ready to tender by the end of 2011 at the latest.
The Greeks are embracing online gambling with nearly a third admitting to having had a flutter and one in 10 claiming to bet on the web regularly. According to a study some 31 per cent of Greeks visited one of the 250 sites available in Greece during the first six months of 2010. On the other side of the coin experts say online gaming has taken an eight per cent chunk out of the casino’s profits and seven per cent bite out of the profits of OPAP.
Casino operators say that instead of hitting the black market the government is merely creating a new VLT market. It is thought illegal gambling is currently worth €4bn – half of which comes from the gambling websites and the other half from underground casinos, bookmakers and poker rooms.
Your
The casinos pay taxes of between 20 per and 33 per cent gaming taxes on their GGR (depending on size and location of casino) whilst casinos revenues last year fell from €50m to €38m. The sector has been struggling and seen big falls in revenues over the last year due to the proliferation of online casinos and competition from casinos located in neighbouring Bulgaria and Macedonia. Visitor figures for 2010 for the nine
C
Greece’s market consists of nine casinos, a state
lottery, horse racing operator and OPAP. Online gaming is
illegal in Greece as are all machines
with the exception of casino slots and OPAP devices.
casinos came to 2,069,892 compared to 3,307,157 the previous year. Meanwhile total revenue for the nine casinos fell by 18 per cent (€120m) in 2010 to just over €500m. The drop at gaming tables fell by 13.8 per cent to €1.1bn.
The casino sector is also querying the government’s plans to license the online gaming companies without then introducing any regulations or controlling
Casinos Everywhere Michael Jackson − ©2012 Triumph International, Inc. under license from Bravado Merchandising. All rights reserved. Performing at
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