More than 8,000 illegal gambling service websites have been identified by the Commission for the Supervision and Control of Gambling (EEEP) in Greece over the last decade.
In most cases, these websites, proliferating in numbers, are operated by legal entities based in tax havens, allowing them to conceal the identities of their administrators. Cases of money laundering have also been reported.
The total number of unlicensed gambling websites that have been identified in Greece is currently at 8,663, up from 6,929 in 2023 and 4,406 in 2022, a 242% rise in three years, according to Antonis Alexiou, director at EEEP.
Back in 2013, when a first black list of unlicensed gambling websites was prepared, the figure was at just 360, he noted.
According to a recent study conducted by EEEP, approximately 900,000 individuals in Greece gambled on unlicensed websites in 2023, attracted by the anonymity as well as higher returns offered.
However, many gamblers using such websites have reportedly faced difficulties in collecting their winnings.
Gamblers aged between 35 and 44 are the biggest users of these illegal websites, representing 28.1 percent of the total, EEEP data showed.
Football games attract most bets, representing 53 percent of the activity, followed by slots (34.6%) and casino games (28.6%), the data showed.
VASSILIS ANDRIANOPOULOS
