Greek Government to Legalise Online Gambling

The government in Greece has never been supportive of online gambling and they made it illegal many years ago. However, it seems now that there are some major changes about to be made to Greek online gambling laws. At the moment legislation is being prepared which shall be presented to parliament later in the year, the legislation aims to regulate and license online gambling including and provide an infrastructure for betting licenses. A resent statement from the Finance Minister of Greece said that online gambling is soon to be legalised, he went on to say that a Gambling Supervision Commission will be set up in order to monitor the industry and maintain its integrity.

Officials in Greece are expecting to make $1.3 million in revenue during the first few years of legalisation which should greatly aid the country's financial problems. Recently Greece received a $110 billion bailout from the EU and International Monetary Fund. The last few years have seen Greece in real financial crisis and changing the laws over online gambling and taxing the revenue could greatly aid the country recover from its economic problems.

As part of the deal under which Greece received the bailout money, Greece had to agree to meet revenue collection targets that were set by the EU and International Monetary Fund. In order to meet the targets Greek officials have been looking for ways to make money and they are hoping that the online gambling industry could solve their problems as the illegal gambling market in Greece is said to be worth $4 billion a year.