Licenses would go for €3 million (.25 million) each
Greece may try to generate much-needed government revenues by licensing foreign online gambling operators, according to the Financial Times. The Times published a letter from Greece’s leftist governing party Syriza to Jeroen Dijsselbloem, head of the European Union financial body Eurogroup, outlining the potential change.
Syriza Finance Minister and economist Yanis Varoufakis, who took office in January, said five-year licenses could be worth €3 million (US$3.25 million) to the operators. Tax rates would remain the same for online gambling operators, SBC News reported. Greek news sources have further speculated that Syriza will likely call for a review of Greece’s current gambling framework in the coming weeks.
“On the basis of available market estimates, the overall market of online gambling in Greece exceeds €3 billion euros annually,” Varoufakis wrote in an 11-page letter to Eurozone officials. “On fairly plausible assumptions, additional public revenue through the taxation of licensed online gambling could well exceed €500 million per annum.”
Varoufakis has been charged with helping the government raise an additional €500 million in yearly revenues to help relieve its fiscal woes.
