If at first you don’t succeed, try again, and get denied again is the message that the European Commission has sent to Greece after rejecting Greece’s request for the consideration of Gambling Regulation for a second time.
The Greek government can’t get around the June 6th deadline the European authorities have set for consultation and review. Instead, the Greek government have made urgency requests to bypass the deadline, asking to be considered an emergency procedure on the grounds of disrupting public order, due to the increasing number of active interpreters. The EC isn’t buying it.
This second rejection puts a serious damper on the Greek government’s plan to raise €700m from gambling in 2011. The financial woes may continue for the cash strapped government if they are unable to find alternative sources of revenue.
As reported by the Capital, there are two different internal government guidelines regarding privatizations and public gambling company OPAP. The primary solution is the allocation of state’s participation (34.4%) in OPAP in 2012 after the valuation is completed, the extension of licensing of OPAP games beyond 2020 and the privatization of Horse Racing Corporation and State Lottery.
The Capital also reports that there are several changes to the taxation of certain games that are possible, through the increasing of tax on profits. According to the report, this measure, if adopted, is expected to cause new reactions in a market that is already reeling from a decline in gambling expenditure.
The Capital also reports that several lawmakers have expressed their opposition regarding the weaning of OPAP by the state. Top government officials state that the implementation of the objectives of the Memorandum of Understanding has become an urgent matter and a dire necessity.
