Greek laws are currently undergoing major reforms, concerning the online gambling activities. A few days ago the Greek court has announced that the online gaming services, provided by OPAP, are not in violation with the Greek’s rules and regulations. OPAP is the company that is considered to have a monopoly on the Greek market but it was accused by major international gaming providers that the services are incompatible with the regulations, established by the European Union.
Two days ago the State Council announced that the Government is going to take urgent measures in order to make the OPAP’s gambling products and services, adaptable to the European Union requirements. More than an year ago, the Greek government sold the shares it had in OPAP for the sum of €652 million and the ongoing reforms should be regarded as a sure sign indicating the desire of the authorities to make the Greek laws suitable to the European requirements.
The Government has been experiencing accusations for a long time due to the fact that the authorities were said to deliberately providing OPAP with beneficial deals with the aim of increasing the value of the stack they owned before selling it.
Two years ago the Greek experts refused giving licenses to several trustworthy and worldwide popular gaming operators and prolonged the OPAP’s monopoly with eight more years instead.
All the rejected operators were bitterly disappointed with the refusal and made an official complaint to the European Union Court of Justice, which respectively confirmed that the OPAP’s monopoly is illegal.
Nevertheless, the judges, who were in charge of taking the decision about the future of the gambling industry in Greece and the OPAP’s monopoly, gave the country a chance to avoid further troubles by giving convincing arguments supporting the thesis that the utmost goal of the monopoly was protecting the players instead of increasing the annual revenue from taxes.
The Greek authorities came out with a statement that OPAP served as a wonderful tool for fighting the illegal gaming activities, keeping a close eye on the gaming providers’ actions, preventing any attempts for violation and last but not least, protecting the players who, without the help of OPAP, would be exposed to the negative impact of many dishonest gambling operators.
Those who think that’s the end of the saga might be surprised to know that probably that’s just the beginning.
A Bit of OPAP’s Accomplishments
The Company is a leading provider of gambling services, which gained it a wide recognition as well as the right to freely operate in Greece for two decades. One of the important concessions OPAP took part in was the one where it competed with INTRALOT and later on, it was announced that OPAP’s bid was the most acceptable one. As a matter of fact, OPAP won the concession due to the partnership with the UK managed company, known as Global Family Partners.
