6 billion euros annual loss from illegal betting

According to what was submitted to the Committee on Institutions and Transparency of the Greek parliament, Supervisory and Gaming Control Committee president (E.E.E.P.) Evgenios Giannakopoulos, amounts played in illegal betting in Greece are equal to one loan tranche of the memorandum.

Giannakopoulos said the annual turnover in illegal betting amounts to 6 billion euros, of which one billion is from the Internet.

He also said "this market has never been recorded. Nobody can tell us how many machines of technical recreational games are out there or how many are envolved. It's a country that will record it now for the first time. It is at least essential to record the market in order to be able to control it. The numbers for the money played in gambling are products of speculation, there is no serious evidence."

He added "there is an element that is crosschecked, which is betting and gambling on the Internet. One should calculate that they are in the category of 1 billion euros in turnover, leading to a gambling gross profit of about 200 million euros."

Giannakopoulos also said the betting market is "booming. In any relevant fair we visit abroad, we are left dumbfounded by the rapid advancement of technology in this field. The entire illegitimate gambling is almost as big as the legitimate part. We have legitimate turnover of 6bn euros in gambling and speculations say it is about twice as much. Our aim is for players who want to deal with this issue, to do it in legally controlled networks and reduce the tendency to gamble as much as possible."