Online gambling is now forbidden in Greece.
In a move that disregards European regulations related to online gambling, the Greek Gaming Commission has released a “black list” of 401 gambling web sites to be blocked in Greece.
A decision that was made on July 24th, defines the initial black list of web sites that “are not licensed to provide gambling services in Greece through the Internet“; the list will be updated as needed from time to time and with respect to the Greek laws on gambling.
The controversial list has been provided to all Greek Internet Service Providers that operate or are based in Greece, so that they proceed with blocking access to the provided web sites. The decision also states that the National Bank of Greece has been informed of the same list, in order to monitor any transactions originating from the blocked gambling web sites.
Lastly, as included in the official statement, the Commission is providing the same information to the authorities, in order to support their task in combating illegal gambling; the latter is a serious crime in Greece.
Greek ISPs that fail to comply with blocking the listed web sites, will be fined 50,000 euro for every day of accessibility. Gambling web site operators that have been blocked are to be fined with 20,000 euro per day, for each type of gambling offered. Direct marketing carries a penalty of 200,000 euro per incident!
Gambling is a licensed state monopoly in Greece, with OPAP running all gambling operations under exclusive license until 2020.
Link to the 401 gambling web sites on the “black list”.
This post is 100% true!
Well thanks for the list, the Greek people know where to go to spend some drachma 😀
After all, you aren’t using your ISP DNS right ? 😉
Kate – The issue is that of controlling the flow of cash, using the state monopoly on gambling. Like any other state, Greece has its variety of casinos, lotto, soccer & horse betting but it’s all operated by a state licensed organization, currently OPAP.
DNS settings won’t unblock any outgoing connections to web sites that are filtered by IP. I believe that the use of VPNs accounts might take care of that. However, the banks will also keep an eye for incoming payments from such blocked web sites, that are perfectly legal to operate in most countries in Europe.