Greece Blocks Over 400 Gambling Websites

• Published: August 7, 2013
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The news from Greece banning rampage made more developments as more information leaked out and fell on the right hands. The country has banned over 400 online gambling sites, including poker rooms, online casinos, sports betting, gambling related websites, and even online gambling companies and websites that do not operate in Greece at all. The list is so vast that anyone could be there, even if they have only said the word gambling on their website once. Ok, that was an exaggeration, but you get the idea.

The Greek authorities are attempting to enforce the ban by requesting Internet Services Providers (ISPs) to block the websites in Greek jurisdiction. The companies have not given any details on whether they will help the government's intentino, or just continue to do business with the perpetrators.

The banning also comes with a statement allowing the Greek Organization of Football Pronostics (OPAP) to be the only company to offer online casino games, online poker cash games, and sports betting. Any other website which desires to offer online gambling services to a Greek citizen will have to apply to a license to be granted permission to offer "casino-type games of chance, the results of which are not provided by a random number generator (RNG) as in poker tournaments." Our decoding of poor English led us to think this means that there is no casino game that can possibly meet that standard. (If you are still wondering why, here it is: a game of chance must have a random outcome, most online gambling websites use RNGs to provide those results and nobody will bother to find a new system that creates random outcomes just for Greece. We are still thinking live dealer might be an option for the Greek, but we'll write more on that later.)

The most suspicious part of the Greek blacklisting is that it came at the same time as the government is attempting to sell the state lotteries, guided by OPAP, which would bring the cash-needing state a revenue of €190 million, and a 30% cut of the annual gross revenue generated. Nobody is happy with the ruling, but the European Commission recently lifted the block that would have forbid the Greek government from making such prohibitions to their citizens.

We will keep you updated on further developments, and if you are in Greece, check back with us to know if you are free to gamble or if you should watch out.