Greece to legalise gambling
In late March 2011, the Greek parliament aimed at legalizing online gambling. Adoption of this law became increasingly realistic, because the Council of Ministers gave also the green light.
Online gambling recover lost ground
Greece's economic situation may well change radically in the coming months. The implementation of new laws to open gambling market online, would help this country could very well to forget that it was about to leave the "euro zone". According to analysts, the domestic currency could lose up to 50% of its value in the near future, which would lead to a drastic increase of the social debt. Even worse, the deficit could reach Greece soon to 200% of GDP, following the frantic devaluation that it experienced in 2007.
Economic situation in Greece is disastrous, and most politicians based their vote on the legalization of online gambling in the country. Greece is a country with a massive number of poker players and casino. Creating a new industry could do much better for a country's finances crushed by debts and expenses. However, as in France, Greece should be in line with European laws. By opening the market to competition, the Mediterranean region may fill coffers and, hopefully, to overcome the growing deficit.
However, authorities and population are not yet lit, institutional process is still a long-term, due to need of the approval of the Council of Ministers, which represents a big step. The law will soon be reviewed by the Finance Committee, which will leave the final decision on large agencies, which is none other than the European Commission, based in Brussels.
The Greek Government said in a firm response that wants to allow gambling in all its forms. If the law would be passed by all authorities concerned, then sports betting, racing betting, bingo, poker and casino games online would all become certified on Greek territory. Moreover, many operators are legal - around fifty if we are to believe the press - they will be invited to open the gates for this business. A licensing system will be applied to enable them to operate in full legality.
Greek government seems to want to go for a "formula specifically" that will bring substantial gains in order to overcome a budget deficit that is already too high. Gross profit gaming operators will be taxed 30%. Greece believes that in this way their country will be able to raise several billion dollars a year, given the large number of players in this country.
In order to best maximize the profitability of gambling, the Greek Government is quite prepared to privatize their betting operator (OPAP) and organization dealing with betting on races (Odie). Pending a potential buyer, Greece is expecting huge profits, making OPAP only a net profit of over 594 million euros in 2010.
Casinowebscripts expecting more of their software in Greece
Casinowebscripts is also expecting to enlarge the area of it's clients by also populating Greece with it's software