At the end of 2010, Greece announced that it would be legalizing online gambling, allowing online casino operators to offer their services to the country’s citizens. According to the government’s draft online gambling legislation, Greece will be handing out 50 licenses to operators from across Europe.
It is believed that by opening up Greece’s online gambling market, the country will earn much-needed tax revenue. Currently, Greece is still in dire financial shape and is in need of any help it can get in order to recover from the global recession. It has been estimated that the newly opened Greek gambling market will rake in hundreds of millions of Euros for the country.
Currently, Greek citizens are spending 4 billion Euros each year at illegal online gambling websites, and the It is estimated that 700 million Euros will be generated by the end of 2011, and 625 million Euros will be brought in over the course of 2012.
During the first quarter of the year, the country’s political officials will vote on the legislation. It is expected that the law will be passed shortly, as the legislations authors hope to hand out all of its licenses by the end of the year.
