Legislation

Greece – Greek government passes amended online legislation

By Phil - 29 October 2019

The Greek government has now passed its revised gambling bill, introducing its first compliant framework for online gambling.

First mooted in September 2018, the final provisions of the new gambling bill were approved by the European Commission (EC) and the House of Representatives of Greece. The Invest in Greece bill was voted in with 165 votes in favour and 122 votes against. It will now be handed to President Prokopis Pavlopoulos to be signed into law.

It will allow the operation of Random Number Generator games, such as slots, which was omitted from an earlier draft.
The licence fee has been reduced from €5m to €3m for online sports betting and RNG and slots with gross revenue tax for licensees set at 35 per cent. Incumbents paying €1m for additional product extensions. A 20 per cent corporation tax will also be applied.

It will also increase the term of a licence from five to seven years. It will cost a fee of €10,000 to apply for the licensing process.

The ‘transition status’ given to 24 online gambling companies awarded provisional licences in 2011 will soon come to an end. These operators can continue with their temporary licence but will have to reapply for new certificates by 31 March 2020.

The Greek government has removed items such as the €500,000 deposit standard from the bill and has axed plans to include a’ variable tax of 15 to 20 per cent’ on online gambling game wins between €100 and €500. Operators must be located in Greece or in another EU country but with the server storing game data located in Greece.
‘Black-listed’ operators will not be able to apply for licencing for up to 12 months.