Online Casino Transfer: News - Greece Looks to Open up Market

06/25/2010		Online Casino Style: News Greece Looks to Open Up Market
Home History Games News Dictionary		With 2010 warming up to be a year lush with liberalization and legalization, yet another country has made a significant political announcement on the liberalization front for online gambling, as the head of the OPAP monopoly confirmed rumors that Greece is looking to open up their internet casino market to offshore companies by next year. Ioannis Spanoudakis, speaking as the chief executive officer for the Greek monopoly confirmed not only will their domain be threatened by competing online gambling firms, but also that OPAP would be adding internet sports betting to their menu of services. The rumors began to hit the online gambling news sites about three weeks ago, and have snowballed to the point where Spanoudakis felt it appropriate to confirm that the Greek government was indeed intentioned on liberalizing the market sometime next year. By that time, OPAP should have already launched their new sports betting operation, expected to be up and running by May of 2011. The government is being quite courteous to OPAP in regards to the legislative changes, as they’ve engaged the monopoly in a number of discussions about the inevitable new structure. According to Spanoudakis, Greece is looking to fall in line with the same sort of regulation found in France, Italy, and other European neighbors. Notes and studies are being taken into close consideration as the new framework is designed. Because it will need to be introduced and debated on by the public, the bills that will outline the changes in regulation could be drafted as early as this month, before a final draft is to be sent to the European Commission for approval.

06/25/2010

Online Casino Style: News
Greece Looks to Open Up Market

With 2010 warming up to be a year lush with liberalization and legalization, yet another country has made a significant political announcement on the liberalization front for online gambling, as the head of the OPAP monopoly confirmed rumors that Greece is looking to open up their internet casino market to offshore companies by next year. Ioannis Spanoudakis, speaking as the chief executive officer for the Greek monopoly confirmed not only will their domain be threatened by competing online gambling firms, but also that OPAP would be adding internet sports betting to their menu of services.

The rumors began to hit the online gambling news sites about three weeks ago, and have snowballed to the point where Spanoudakis felt it appropriate to confirm that the Greek government was indeed intentioned on liberalizing the market sometime next year. By that time, OPAP should have already launched their new sports betting operation, expected to be up and running by May of 2011.

The government is being quite courteous to OPAP in regards to the legislative changes, as they’ve engaged the monopoly in a number of discussions about the inevitable new structure. According to Spanoudakis, Greece is looking to fall in line with the same sort of regulation found in France, Italy, and other European neighbors. Notes and studies are being taken into close consideration as the new framework is designed. Because it will need to be introduced and debated on by the public, the bills that will outline the changes in regulation could be drafted as early as this month, before a final draft is to be sent to the European Commission for approval.