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Illegal Gambling Yields 6 Billion Euros Turnover

illegal gamblingAccording to estimates, the illegal gambling market turnover reached 5.5 to 6 billion euros in 2013, while at the same period legitimate gambling businesses showed a considerable decrease in revenues.
The president of Greece’s Gaming Commission, Evgenios Giannakopoulos, who briefed the Committee on Institutions and Transparency of the Greek Parliament, stated that there are 60,000 to 100,000 gambling game machines operating illegally in the country, while he also noted that he believes that OPAP’s gaming machines which will be installed in the legal gambling network during 2014 will help combat this phenomenon.
According to Giannakopoulos, studies have shown that the money used for illegal gambling through gaming machines and computers mostly comes from a specific group of people of low educational background, who have the tendency of getting addicted.
“These people are likely to play 4 or 5 times a day and if they are asked they say that they are planning on gambling 100 euros when their gross yearly income is 15,000 euros,” he said. “If you look at the numbers closely, they don’t add up.” Giannakopoulos and his associates hope that the gaming machines that will be installed by OPAP at the end of 2014 in legal gambling locations will be the solution to this problem.
Furthermore, the president of the Gaming Commission also said that, until the international competition that will provide legitimate licenses for online gambling, Greece is in a transitional stage.
Finally, he noted that 24 companies have complied with Greek legislation and are currently offering such services, while he stressed that any companies that do not comply with Greek law, will have their Internet access suspended by Greek Internet providers, while Greek banks will terminated any transactions with them. As he noted, at this point, 438 such companies have lost their access.
 

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