Greece approves egaming legislation

This will commence once the Control Committee to be established under the law has been formed, allowing operators to offer products and advertise freely across all online and offline media, including TV. A date for the establishment of the Committee has not yet been set.

Betfair, which in June lodged a complaint with the EC regarding the exclusion of betting exhanges from the law, told eGaming Review: “The Greek government’s decision to recognise the licenses held by EU betting operators during the transitional phase is a positive step. Betfair will continue to engage with the Greek Government during this time, working on elements of the law which we believe could be brought more into line with EU principles."

In addition to an apparent u-turn on its earlier intention to impose a six-month blackout period designed to protect state-run and part-owned monopoly incumbent OPAP, criticised this week by industry lobby group the Remote Gambling Association, a clause limiting licences to between 15 and 50 has also been scrapped, eGR understands.

RGA CEO Clive Hawkswood said about the recently approved legislation: ‘There have been some positive amendments to the legislation. However, it still poses some important issues for operators and their business models, and a number of areas require further detail and clarification. Key to this is the scope of the transitional period and the implementation of a workable taxation regime. Ensuring an equitable and competitive market place involving private operators and the part state-owned OPAP is also an important factor. We hope to continue to have a constructive dialogue with the Greek authorities on those matters with the aim of ensuring a viable and EU complaint framework is put in operation to the benefit of government, consumers and remote operators.’ 
The last-minute changes introduced by the Greek government were aimed at bringing its legislation into compliance with EU law ahead of the expiry on 8 August of the statutory standstill period set aside for review of Member State gambling legislation, and to allow it to force through the proposals as part of a mammoth financial package designed to appease Greece’s international lenders.

Some confusion remains however among operators as to how far back the Greek government will be able to retrospectively apply the taxes contained within the new legislation. The Greek Constitution provides that “a tax or any other financial charge may not be imposed by a statute that has effect prior to the fiscal year preceding the imposition of the tax”, the Greek government would however reserve the right to apply the tax provision retroactively as far back as 1 January 2010, once operators had agreed to place themselves under the tax regime of the law.

EU-based operators will be able to target Greek customers from servers based outside of Greece during the six-month transitional period, it remains unclear as to whether they will be required to locate servers within the territory once licences have been granted.