Lobby group the Remote Gambling Association has written to Greek authorities detailing the potential legal actions they could face for failing to bring the country’s egaming regulations into compliance with EU and Greek laws.
The EU Member State introduced sanctions in early December preventing operators from targeting its online gambling market without a local licence, which included ISP blocks and large potential fines for ISPs, operators, financial institutions and players.
This enforcement measures, only notified to the EC after coming under pressure from EC officials, also scrapped an earlier commitment to issue licences to 24 companies that began paying taxes in 2011 following passage of online gambling regulations there.
With the Greek government now having drafted legislation to hand exclusive online rights to OPAP ahead of the sale of its 33% stake in the gambling company, the RGA has written a letter to the Greek president, prime minister and minister of finance warning of possible legal actions they could face if the Greek state fails to bring its gambling regulations into compliance with EU and Greek law.
The chief executive of the RGA, Clive Hawkswood, stressed that the organisation wanted to work alongside the Greek government to ensure an EU-compliant regime that delivered a regulated, competitive industry and met the Greek government’s goals of consumer protection and tax revenues. However, he said that “operators will have no choice to consider challenging them further in the courts” if Greek authorities continued to block his members from the market.
The letter informed the Greek State that this could include paying tens of millions of euros in compensation if it proceeded with replacing its EU-compliant 2011 licensing proposal with an OPAP monopoly.
According to the RGA, legal avenues included petition in the Greek court against OPAP’s proposed monopoly to provide online gambling in Greece; operators lodging actions in the Greek courts against the new enforcement measures, which the RGA said breached both European and Greek laws; a competition law complaint to the European Commission regarding OPAP’s potential award of an online sports betting monopoly.
Hawkswood also criticised the enforcement measures introduced by the Greek government, saying they had “clearly been introduced in haste…we cannot believe that they have been approved by the EC.” He called on the EC to take action against measures which were “blantantly protectionist” in contravention of EU internal market rules.
The RGA’s members include all the leading pan-European operators and service providers, such as 888, bet365, Betfair, bwin.party, Paddy Power, Playtech, William Hill and Sportingbet.
Article written by Stephen Carter
