Gov’t betting on games of chance
The government will try to put the Greek gambling market in order with a sweeping bill that could fetch total revenues of 1.3 billion euros over the next two years, as is provided for in the memorandum it has signed with its foreign creditors. The new draft law will be up for consultation in the coming days and is expected to become law by the end of this month. It is aimed at regulating the entire gambling market and allows for the introduction of new games of chance, such as slot machines, as well as games played on the Internet. The bill, to be presented by Finance Minister Giorgos Papaconstantinou, will create special bodies to monitor the domestic games-of-chance market, which was estimated as being worth some 10 billion euros last year, excluding illegal Internet betting. As far as slot machines are concerned, the government intends to introduce some 50,000 and reap about 500 million euros from their licensing.
