OPAP strongly reacted to government’s decision to impose an extra charge on lottery games operated by the company -a decision aimed to boost state revenues.

Odysseas Christoforou, general manager of Corporate Communication in OPAP, said the move was discriminatory against OPAP and noted that such a move would have serious negative consequences.

He also said that OPAP has already submitted specific proposals to the government aiming to boost public revenues through combating illegal gaming, which was estimated at about 6.0 billion euros.

“We have informed in details and on time the government that such a move would be counter-efficient. We explained that it would not lead to the expected fiscal revenue and would severely hit our agent network as it would lead to a reduction of gaming in the country. Such a decline will negatively affect state revenues,” said Mr. Christoforou.

“Beyond the financial consequences of imposing such a measure, legal issues were also raised, among them a discriminatory treatment against our company and our network of agents” he added.