Galery

1

Victoria Mindova

The turnover of illegal gambling in Greece is between seven and eight billion euro per year. At the same time, a study carried out by GRReporter shows that the OPAP legal stations for betting and gambling have lost almost half of their turnover in the last two years because the majority of people prefer to save their money for essential goods and services rather than try their luck in lotto games or betting.

According to an owner of an OPAP station in the northern suburbs of Athens, the games that have lost most of their fans are the bets on football matches that are being made in the stations themselves and the game of chance called KINO.

Last week, the stations of the public lottery OPAP remained closed, the reason being the change in the tax legislation under which the prizes from the games of chance will be subject to a 10% tax from the first euro. "The taxation of the first euro of the prizes from the games of chance will significantly reduce the turnover of lotto stations. We are already suffering severe losses," said the representative of the sector. "The additional tax burden will make the majority of small players abandon the games. The measure that the government provides for will inevitably contribute to the further decline in turnover and will affect negatively the tax revenues in our sector."

So far, the law in the country has stipulated that prizes to the amount of up to 100 euro from the games of chance are not taxable. These are games whose prizes are paid on the spot and they are mostly small amounts. The owners of OPAP lotto stations rely heavily on the fact that the players of these types of games put the prizes back into short-term bets, thus making a turnover. "If a customer gives one euro and wins one euro, he will have to pay a tax of 10 cents. Actually, he will not get his money back although he has won; he would rather lose one-tenth of the money he has put in the game," explains the owner of the lotto station and adds that this is the main reason for them having started active strike actions.

The strike of the OPAP lotto stations lasted nearly a week and according to experts, it was too long. For five days out of work, the treasury lost about one million euro. The games of chance have their regular customers, which bring good profits both for the public company OPAP that has a monopoly on them and for the budget.

To avoid taxation of the prizes from the first euro, the union of owners of OPAP stations have made a proposal. It will provide the same revenue for the state as in the original plan of the government but it will not burden the small prizes from the games of chance. The sector suggests that prizes of up to 100 euro should remain exempt from taxes, whereas those of 101 to 500 euro should be subject to a 10% tax and the tax on those exceeding 500 euro should be 20%. "The Ministry of Finance approves this proposal but it must be approved by Brussels in order to enter into force."

Currently, the number of legal gambling stations in Greece is just under 5,000 throughout the country and the trend for it is to decrease in the next year. However, illegal gambling remains the major problem faced by the government. Internet gambling is gaining more popularity because the amounts of the prizes are higher and there is no tax on them. They are based mostly in the so-called "tax haven zones" and do not comply with the requirements of the European Union. Another problem is the illegal VLT machines, which are known in the country as "the fruities" and which are not yet permitted for a wider use. The people employed in the sector urge the government to do more to put the illegal games under control before starting to increase the taxes on the prizes from the legal ones.