Greeks Go Nuts For Online Gambling - 01-19-08

January 19 - The Greeks are officially betting nuts. So confirms a study by the Greek National Federation Of Bookmakers. Last year Greeks spent over $10 billion US dollars on betting online, even though technically speaking it is still illegal to bet online in Greece.

The Federation revealed that the size of the online gambling market tripled in the last three years, which is why so many companies now have an interest in seeing the end of a state held monopoly in Greece.

Any interesting statistic shows that in  2007 the European Gross turnover from gambling was equal to approximately eight percent of the Greek domestic product (GDP) and larger than the market capitalization of Greek Telecom. Greeks gambled approximately $9.5 billion in 2005 and $13 billion in 2006, and a massive $23 billion in 2007.  The nations casino are said to be booming and report record figures over the holiday period. Online gambling has enabled Greeks to gamble all year round and it appears as if they are taking full advantage.

'Internet gambling is relatively new to Europe,' a spokes person of British gambling firm William Hill said.

"People started becoming aware of it in 1998 during the Soccer World Cup in France and it has grown exponentially since people have become more literate. Will Hill has over 292,000 active online gambling clients, from all over the world."

According to a 2002 Greek law, all forms of online gambling is banned. As a result the country faces legal action from several bookmakers claiming that the 2002 law breaches European fair trade laws.

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