The hunt for unlicensed gambling sites in Greece continues, with big names in the field now on the Greek blacklist. The role of the regulatory authority is exactly the same as that of the UKGC in the UK ( licensing, regulating the whole market, etc.), but it has an additional role that is to spot unlicensed sites that accept Greek players and deny them access. Of course, the Greek authority does not stop there, as it also blacklists brands that do not operate in Greece at all and do not accept Greek players. And that’s exactly what happened in the last two versions of the blacklist. Let us take a closer look:
Which websites are now on the Greek blacklist?
32red, Betvictor, Dafabet and Mr Fortune casino are some of the “big” names we detected on the list. We also found some companies that are licensed by not so reliable regulators like Curacao. Some of the most popular brands are luckynuggetcasino, mummysgold and mybet.
Where we would like to stay a little more is Jumpman Casinos, which has over 174 sites and is licensed by the UKGC and the Alderney Gambling Commission. Jumpman is known for the odd “Spin the Mega Reel” offer and operates mainly in the UK. Bestmegareelsites.co.uk (a website dealing mainly with Jumpman websites) informed us that their casinos do not accept Greek players anyway. However, according to people who know the Greek market well, something like this shouldn’t come as a surprise, since it is not possible for a regulator to go into whether a gambling site accepts players or not; it simply bans access to the site and that’s it. As for Jumpman sites, 10 were initially banned in the 24th review in 2019 and are still on the list this year, both in the September and December editions, where the remaining sites were added.
About the Greek Gambling Commission
The Greek Gambling Supervision and Control Authority, as it is now known, was established in 2004 but did not begin operations until 2011. Its purpose was to establish the legal framework and operating rules for games of chance in order to ensure their integrity and protect the interests of citizens and the public.
As part of the supervision and control exercised by the authority, it compiles a list of licensed game providers (white list) and a list of non-licensed game providers (black list) including ,both land-based casinos and those that offer their services via the Internet (online) or by some other method from a distance (remote gambling).
The lists are revised to include the new licenses as well as new sites that did not receive an appropriate license and were therefore blacklisted.
Regarding the black list, 36 revisions have been published with the most recent one having been completed on 12/28/2022.
The list so far includes 4414 Greek and foreign websites that have not received approval from the Greek authority. Thοse sites on the list may not be licensed in Greece or provide services through a provider licensed in Greece. It seems that this witch hunt will continue, as it is impossible to confirm and block all gaming providers at once.
Once a site is on the list, access through ISPs is restricted for players located in Greek territory. When attempting to connect to the sites, players are informed that they are attempting to connect to an unlicensed provider and access will therefore be denied.
At the same time, Greek financial institutions must stop payment transactions with accounts held by unauthorized companies.
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