The lion’s share of the gambling pie in Greece in 2023 was taken by online gambling, as revealed by KapaResearch’s data, which was conducted on behalf of the Hellenic Gaming Commission (EEEP) the previous month on over 5,000 individuals.
Specifically, as indicated by the research on legal gambling, Greeks choose online platforms at a rate of 74.9%, where the Gross Gaming Revenues (GGR, or the sum of provider revenues minus player winnings) reach 876 million euros.
At the same time, however, only 5.41% opt for legal land-based casinos, where the GGR barely exceeds 230 million euros, while 18.63% turn to OPAP agencies where this amount exceeds 1.3 billion euros in agencies and VLTs.
In the same context, less than 1% choose lottery tickets (120 million euros) and only 0.09% the racetrack (8.9 million euros).
However, illegal gambling in our country has shown a significant increase, as more than 1.7 billion euros were wagered through illegal networks in 2023, with 10% of these players aged 17 to 21, indicating addiction to illegality. Moreover, the majority of players consider themselves losers in involvement with illegal gambling networks and also fear the consequences of participating in illegal activities.
The presentation took place at a conference of the Hellenic Gaming Association (HGA) where the President of the Hellenic Gaming Commission (EEEP), Mr. Dimitris Djanatos, emphasized that illegal gambling finds a broader scope of action due to market conditions and proposed the creation of a new body involving representatives of judicial authorities, police, banking system, scientific personnel, and market players to act swiftly and persuade players to avoid illegal networks, from which only damaged individuals emerge.
Package of 3.3 billion euros from the Recovery Fund for investments
In total, in 2023, 1.7 billion euros were wagered in an unlicensed environment. Of these, one billion euros were directed to online games and 700 million euros to land-based games. It is noteworthy that 900,000 Greeks, nearly 1 in 10, have participated in illegal gambling at least once in the last 12 months. “What surprised us is that those who play on unlicensed networks, although they know it is illegal, do not hesitate to admit it,” noted the President of the Hellenic Gaming Commission, Dimitris Djanatos.
According to the research, players in the illegal network replayed an average of 47.55% of their winnings. The average annual amount spent per player amounts to 1,934 euros. Specifically, 1,194 euros is the annual average spending per player on unlicensed online networks and 738 euros is the annual average spending per player on unlicensed land-based networks.
