Government commissioned study recommends no cap to Greek online gambling licenses

In a study commissioned by the Greek government, US consultant firm Grant Thornton has recommended the complete liberalisation of Greeces online gaming market, according to reports from the Greek newspaper Ekathemerini.

The American firm proposes unlimited operating licenses for all kinds of games conditional on the operator using a Greek domain name, or a .gr suffix in its web address.

The consultant recommends two types of permits for gambling on the web: Type A licenses would cover all providers offering betting games (including soccer, etc) and bet exchange websites, and Type B licenses would be for suppliers of all other gaming types, including those based on random number generators (RNG) such as casino-type online games.

Licensed providers would be able to operate outside Greece, in another European Union country, but would have to have a server based in Greece containing the details of transactions executed by local punters.

The duration of every permit is proposed at seven years. For each licence, the study recommends an advance payment of Euro 500,000 plus an annual fee of Euro 50,000, while retaining taxation at a high 35 percent of GGR – a policy which has prompted a number of top operators to quit the market.

The current system makes available 24 ‘temporary’ licenses, most of which have been abandoned.