Greece passes 35 percent tax on online betting

The Greek Syriza government has approved 35 percent Gross Gaming Revenue charges on licensed online betting operators.

Greece.- Aiming mainly to meet the qualifying criteria for its next European Union sanctioned bailout tranche, the Greek Syriza government has approved 35 percent Gross Gaming Revenue (GGR) charges on licensed online gambling operators.

After the EU’s imposed loan sanctions required the European country to meet a surplus of 3.5 percent of its national budget, Greece had no choice but to raise an additional €1.5 billion (US$ 1.67 billion) in taxes.

This means Greece retracts its scalable 30-35 percent online gambling duty, as its places a fixed rate of 35 percent GGR on all product verticals. The new measure will be implemented in January 2017.

Under the this regulation, all of Greece’s 24 licensed international online gambling operators will have to adhere to the new tax charge, which will also be matched by state-owned gambling operator OPAP in order fulfil EU fair competition practices.

International gambling operators have yet to comment on the Greek online gambling tax increase and whether the market conditions will be sustainable for commercial growth.