Greece unveils draft law to allow online gambling

[CareyG]

Jan 26 (Reuters) - Greece on Tuesday unveiled a long-awaited draft law to allow online gambling and lift a ban on amusement and low-stake gaming machines.

The cash-strapped government hopes the law will yield hundreds of millions of euros in extra budget revenues and help it crack down on unlicenced betting. [ID:nLDE70P08C]

Here are key facts on the Greek gaming market and details of the bill:

OPAP MONOPOLY

Greece's regulated betting market consists of state-controlled operator OPAP (OPAr.AT), nine casinos, a horse racing operator and state lotteries. Total proceeds in 2008 were about 8.7 billion euros ($11.90 billion).

OPAP, Europe's biggest betting firm, offers three fixed-odds sports bets and six lotteries in Greece and Cyprus, producing revenues of about 5.4 billion euros in 2009. It has exclusive rights on Sports Betting and lotto games in Greece until 2020.

Read entire article here.

 

[Anton DB]

Wel, I bet (!) players from Greece will be very happy (not).
Just like players from France.

I don't understand jack sh*t of the whole legalising process anymore, and I think I'm not alone.
I think only lawyers fully understand the consequences.
Legalising sounds great, but as a result players from France are now banned from almost every online casino, just as Americans, where playing online is ILLEGAL!

So, legal or illegal, you'll get banned anyway.

This year, without a doubt, online gambling will become legal here in Holland too.
I'm really looking forward to that day...
Maybe thats why Rivals no longer allow us to even sign up?