Greek High Court asked to cancel new gambling levy

One of the most prominent gambling companies has requested the annulment of a recently introduced tax.

Greece.- The Council of State received a petition signed by OPAP, a Greek gambling company, asking to annul and suspend a new tax levy on its games, which was announced last year by Greece’s Finance Ministry.

The measure establishes a tax of €0.05 (US$0.054)  on all OPAP games -with the exception of the online segment- in order to help raise revenues for the nation’s troubled economy. The firm explained that it is impossible to technologically adjust their systems immediately for the collection of the new levy.

According to OPAP claims, the new tax violates the European law. The imposition of the levy allegedly constitutes taxation on the turnover of games, as argumented by OPAP. This violates the European Union legislation that forbids taxing revenues. Furthermore, OPAP has expressed the new levy goes against the European Convention on Human Rights as well as the Greek law.

Local media reported that sources of the Finance Ministry will examine the possibility of imposing penalties in case OPAP refuses to pay the tax.