Greece proposes cut of video lottery machines

The government proposed the reduction of the number of video lottery machines from monopoly company OPAP.

Greece.- The Finance Ministry of Greece proposed late on Friday that the number of video lottery machines operated by Europe’s fourth biggest betting firm OPAP should be 25k, down 10k from the 35k that the country legislation currently stipulates.

The betting and lottery monopoly operator confirmed earlier this year that they will unveil 16.5k video lottery terminals (VLTs) by May 2018. The government reported on Friday that it had tabled a bill that reduces the number of machines, in order to achieve a smaller exposure to gambling and better supervision from the authorities, as ekathimerini.com informed.

OPAP, the company that was fully privatised four years ago, is planning the subcontract of another 18k machines. The company offers sports betting and lottery services through a network of 5750 outlets in Greece and Cyprus. Back in June, the operator said that the first quarter of 2017 brought US$603 million in sales, a 5.3 percent increase and up from the US$380 million registered in 2016.

Whilst overall the results were good for OPAP, EBITDA fell 0.4 percent to US$87.9 million, down from the US$88.2 million experienced during the same three month period in 2016. The company said that the fall is due to the implementation of new projects, and development expenses that are linked with VLTs.

Moreover, Damian Cope, the company’s chief executive, said that for the remaining of the year they were focused on continuing to build on what has been already accomplished in 2017 to ensure that they remain on track to achieve the delivery of the “2020 vision.”