According to reports in Kathimerini, the Greek news medium, the citizens of Greece spend over 8.5 billion Euros each year on their passion for gambling, with much of that increasingly directed at online gambling venues such as online casinos, poker rooms, lotteries and more.

Experts on the online gambling industry said that the growing interest in online gambling is a result of increasingly sophisticated marketing techniques as well as subtle changes in community values.  As evidence of this explosive growth in online gambling, it was noted that approximately three billion Euros will be spent in all nine of the country's casinos in the next year and that annual turnover booked by OPAP, one of the largest companies listed on the Athens Stock Exchange, is around the Euro 3.5 billion mark.

During the holiday season, the number of gamblers visiting the country’s casinos will likely double.  The Loutraki casino, for example, which is located west of Athens, usually has about 3000 customers on any given day but that number soars to approximately 5000 a day during the holiday season.

Wagering over the Internet is becoming increasingly popular in Greece because it offers better returns than OPAP, as well as more opportunities to gamble at more than one sports match, thereby improving one’s chances of winning.

According to one senior police source, “the number of those who play [illegal games] is fewer than those who play the legal games, but the amounts that are bet are much larger”.

Apparently, there are several betting agency owners that accept debts from their trustworthy customers and then process the bet themselves for a commission of up to four percent.  By doing this, they are indirectly supporting the growth in illegal Internet gambling.

"One in 10 betting agency owners does this," the police source said.

Posted on: January 9, 2007

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