Illegal gambling market in Greece worth 6 billion euros

The illegal gambling industry has grown significantly in Greece over the past year.

The illegal gambling market in Greece had a turnover of between 5.5 – 6 billion euros in 2013, according to estimates released on Friday.

During this time, the revenue of legal gambling enterprises declined significantly.

The president of Greece’s Gaming Commission, Evgenios Giannakopoulos, who briefed the Committee on Institutions and Transparency of the Greek Parliament, said that there are between 60,000 – 100,000 illegal gambling machines that operate in Greece.

Mr Giannakopoulos also stated that he believed the introduction of gaming machines from OPAP at the end of 2014 will stop this trend.

OPAP is a public company that is based in Athens, and exclusively operates and manages numerical lottery and sports betting games in Greece. It is Europe’s biggest betting firm, and offers sports betting and lotteries in both Greece and Cyprus through a network of approximately 5,000 agents.

Mr Giannakopoulos says that studies have shown that the money which is used for illegal gambling through gaming machines and computers mainly comes from a specific type of person who has a tendency to get addicted to gambling and is normally of low educational background.

Speaking to the Greek Reporter, he said: “These people are likely to play 4 or 5 times a day and if they are asked they say that they are planning on gambling 100 euros when their gross yearly income is 15,000 euros. If you look at the numbers closely, they don’t add up.”