The new Greek draft gambling law submitted to the European Commission

The new draft law on online gambling, that was initially submitted to the Hellenic Parliament on October 9, 2019, has been eventually submitted to the European Commission (TRIS) on the 31st of December 2019 by the Greek Ministry of Finance. It will be under review for three months, with the 1st of April 2020 marking the end of the consultation period.

According to the provisions of the law, online sports betting and other online games (i.e. poker, casino games and RNG games) will be subject to different licenses. More specifically, the acquisition fee for a sports betting license will be at €3m, while the fee for a license of other online games will be at €2m. Both license types will be valid for a period of 7 years.

It is worth mentioning that RNG games will be subject to a maximum stake of €2, while the maximum profit per gaming session will be at €5,000. As regards the jackpot, the maximum payout will be at €500,000. Furthermore, there will be some restrictions regarding the advertisement of RNG games, that can only be promoted on the websites of the operators that offer them.

Nonetheless, the aforementioned advertising restrictions won’t be applicable to other types of online gambling, such as live casino games, poker or sports betting; while the minimum gambling age for all types of online games will remain at 21.

It is also worth noting that all the operators that were included on the blacklist issued by the Hellenic Gaming Commission (HGC) 12 months prior to the submission of their license application, will not be eligible to apply for a new license.