Top Live Casinos in Greece

Greece, a country that is officially and diplomatically known as the Hellenic Republic, is located in Southeast Europe. In 2018 the official population number was 10.7 million, with Athens as its largest city and capital of the country. Greece also has the longest coastline in the Mediterranean Basin, and in its territory, it includes a huge number of islands, 227 of which are inhabited.

The scope of the games in Greek casinos ranks just like any other well-developed market for live gambling. Every live casino offers a huge variety of games to its players. The best online live casinos in Greece have emerged as a very good way to truly experience the excitement of real casino gaming without leaving your sofa.

Gambling in the Early Days
Gambling in Greece started in the ancient period, where people had their own ways of placing wagers. Games were usually based on throwing dice and tossing coins. There are some sources who claim that the game of poker has begun in Ancient Greece, but there is no hard evidence for this claim.

The oldest casino in Greece was reportedly built in Loutraki in the early 20th century. As for the modern casinos, most of them are very luxurious establishments where players can place their bets in a high level of comfort.

Easy Access

Players in Greece can easily access a whole variety of online casinos from foreign operators. It is, however, a sort of grey area, as the Greek regulators and the courts in Europe have placed totally different opinions on the legality of online gambling in Greece. Currently, there are nine active, licensed casinos in Greece. They are all based on the mainland of the country and on the Greek Islands of Syros, Rhodes, and Corfu.

Gambling in Greece is only permitted inside casinos with a license that is valid, it is not allowed in any public space. OPAP (English: Greek Organization of Football Prognostics) had all the power in all forms of gambling since its birth in 1958. Despite all this pressure and the privatization process, OPAP has managed to regain control of all types of casino gambling until 2030.

Gambling Nowadays in Greece

One topic that still produces many heated discussions in Greece is online gambling. The EU constantly accused Greece of corruption and violation of EU law when live gambling is in question. It is clear that online casinos which are operating or planning to enter the Greek gambling market are overwhelmed by regulations.

But, as the interest in gambling is high with Greek players, it could be said that it is worth it. Like mentioned before, gambling has always been extremely popular in Greece, and it is evolving with the emergence and the development of live and mobile gambling.

The regulations have relaxed a little bit, but there are still huge charges by tax policies, so it could be some time before Greek players get a whole variety of operators to choose where to place their bets. At the moment, it seems that foreign operators are most profiting from the large interest, as many international casino brands have already entered the market.

Gambling in Greece is only allowed when it happens inside any casino venue, but not outside of these establishments. At the moment, there are 10 regulated casinos in Greece, with the vast majority of them located on the Greek islands – Rhodes and Corfu especially, as these islands are also known as extremely attractive tourist destinations in the country.

Supervision, monitoring, and the control of gambling operators in the territory of Greece are carried out by an administrative body that is called the Hellenic Gaming Commission (HGC), which has 9 members directly chosen by the Ministry of Finance.

Live Casinos

As for live casinos, it is important to note that the Greek-owned company OPAP has a complete monopoly of the live online casino sphere until 2030. Anyway, Greek players can gamble in a whole number of foreign operators who have optimized their websites in the Greek language as well as English. The bets placed in these casinos are accepted in euros and US dollars.

According to the Greek law, operators are not prohibited to apply for a license for online live casinos in the territory of the country, but as stated before, a monopolist in that field is OPAP. EU is constantly putting additional pressure to make this monopoly better regulated and more legal, so the law in Greece has to change to be in accordance with the requirements of the EU.

Regulation Laws and Authorities

Every field of gambling activity is regulated with Law 4002/2011. This is where all the rules and conditions are set under which all gambling services are allowed to be offered by gambling operators in the country. The supervision and the control of the gambling activities are carried out by the independent, administrative body called the Hellenic Gaming Commission, in which 9 members are participating, directly chosen by the Minister of Finance.

After the Gambling Act of 2011 was brought forward, all foreign operators were eligible for licensing. But, not a big number of such operators showed a willingness to open any casino operations in Greece as, first, there is no clear procedure of the licensing process, and the Greek Government has slammed a 30% tax rate for foreign operators.

Any player who wishes to access a certain live casino website will firstly check the list of game providers, and rightly so. The legislation is still a little bit dodgy when online gambling is in question, but good operators partner with game providers such as:

• Evolution Gaming
• NetEnt
• Microgaming

As these are all well-established game providers, they only partner with licensed live casino operators. This is exactly why players are always advised to place their wagers on licensed sites to avoid any frauds. As live dealer games are highly popular among Greek players, Evolution Gaming has emerged as the most preferred game provider, as it undoubtedly offers the best live dealer games.

It is widely accepted among the players who enjoy live casinos around the world that a clear indicator that they are signing up for a good online live casino is the types of payment methods they provide. Payment methods are one of the first signs of the quality and reliability of a certain live casino. When that live online casino offers a whole variety of payment methods, it is a sign that that operator is dealing with a very large customer base, and the biggest financial and payment companies have complete trust in that operator.

Greek live casinos offer secure deposits and withdrawals from credit cards, eWallets, and also prepaid card transfers. Some of the top payment methods in Greece are:

• Visa
• Neteller
• Skrill
• Paysafecard

Ewallets have proved to be the most trustworthy among the players as, although they may charge certain small transfer fees, they provide the biggest security features of all the above-mentioned payment options. The withdrawals and the deposits are usually fast.

Less Popular Payment Methods in Greece

Payment methods that have proven to be a bit less accepted by the Greek players are EntroPay and WebMoney. Players like to go with the above-mentioned, well-established payment methods and options for their transactions.

Cryptocurrency is something that is accepted in certain live casinos around the world, but it is not yet well developed as a payment method in Greece, as the market is still pretty new and still pretty turbulent, but maybe players can expect all this to change in near future.