Greece Gaming License

What is a Greece gaming license?

A Greece gaming license is the administrative license issued by the Hellenic Gaming Commission under Law 4002/2011 for online games of chance in Greece. The license runs for seven years and covers people located in Greece. Greek law splits the online market into Type 1 for betting and Type 2 for all other online games.

Three separate regimes sit under Greek gambling law, and only one of them is the online license. Land-based casinos hold concessions under Law 2206/1994, granted for 15 years for a simple casino and 30 years for a wide-range casino. Video lottery terminals are not open to competition at all: OPAP S.A. holds the exclusive concession, capped at 25,000 terminals nationwide. State lotteries run under their own concession.

An operator that wants Greek players online applies for a Type 1 or Type 2 license, or both. The two are separate licenses with separate fees, and one website may host exactly one license of each type. Neither license reaches land-based venues, and neither can be bought from an existing holder. Greek law makes the license personal and bars transfer or assignment in whole or in part.

Sweepstakes with monetary prizes and lotteries sit outside the online license as well. Each carries its own HGC authorisation and a lower minimum age of 18.

Who regulates online gambling in Greece?

The Hellenic Gaming Commission (HGC), known in Greek as Επιτροπή Εποπτείας και Ελέγχου Παιγνίων (EEEP), regulates online gambling in Greece. The HGC is an independent administrative authority established under Article 28 of Law 4002/2011. Policy and game rules come from the Ministry of National Economy and Finance.

Four bodies are easy to confuse in Greek gambling. The HGC licenses operators, certifies games and systems, supervises AML compliance and maintains the blacklist of unlicensed sites. The Ministry of National Economy and Finance sets policy and issues the ministerial decisions carrying the detailed game rules. Ministerial Decision 79835 ΕΞ 2020 governs the organisation and conduct of online games of chance.

OPAP S.A. is not a regulator. OPAP is the incumbent concession holder for video lottery terminals and state lotteries, and competes with licensed operators rather than supervising them.

The Hellenic Telecommunications and Post Commission (EETT) regulates telecoms, not gambling. EETT entered the gambling picture in 2026, when the enforcement framework gave it a formal role in blocking unlicensed sites. EETT also reports new .gr and .ελ domain registrations to the HGC.

The split matters for an applicant. Licensing questions, certification and suitability go to the HGC. Tax filing goes to the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE), which collects the state participation on gross profit. Correspondence with the HGC runs through its information system, and documents are filed in Greek or with certified translation.

What types of online gaming license does Greece issue?

Greece issues two online B2C licenses. Type 1 covers betting on real events, fantasy sports and virtual events on random number generators. Type 2 covers other online games, including casino games, poker and bingo, in both live and RNG form. One applicant may hold both.

Legal guides label the same two licenses differently. Several law firms and the ICLG gambling guide write Type A and Type B. The HGC and most operator-facing sources write Type 1 and Type 2. Type 1 equals Type A, and Type 2 equals Type B.

A second layer sits beside the operator license. Suitability permits apply to shareholders, key personnel and suppliers of technical means, under the Regulation on Suitability of Persons 79305/27.7.2020. Affiliates need their own suitability permit and entry in the HGC Register of Affiliates under Decision 509/1/11.09.2020. A licensed operator may work only with registered affiliates.

Both licenses are personal. Law 4002/2011 bars transfer or assignment in any way, in whole or in part, so Greek market access cannot be bought from an existing holder.

Who can apply for a Greece gaming license?

An applicant for a Greece gaming license must be a capital company seated in Greece, another EU member state or an EEA state. A registered office or a permanent establishment satisfies the seat requirement. Minimum paid-up share capital is €200,000. Shareholders, directors and key personnel pass a fit and proper assessment.

Greek law does not require a Greek company. The seat requirement is a rule about who may apply, not recognition of another country's license.

Financial and technical capacity are assessed alongside integrity. Applicants file published financial statements for the last three years, tax clearance and social security clearance certificates. Board members, partners and managers must be free of convictions for fraud, embezzlement, forgery, bribery, money laundering and gambling offences.

Entry on the HGC blacklist is a bar to licensing. Under Article 48(1)(8) of Law 4002/2011 the HGC maintains a list of providers offering unlicensed gambling in Greece, and an entity on that list cannot be licensed or participate in any way in a licensed gambling operator. The rule has no lookback window, so it catches operators who served Greek players without a license and later applied to regularise.

An applicant without a Greek registration or branch appoints a local representative to act as its liaison with the HGC. Documents are filed in Greek or with certified translation, which adds preparation time that English-only packs rarely account for.

How much does a Greece gaming license cost?

A Greece gaming license costs €3,000,000 for Type 1 or €2,000,000 for Type 2, paid once for a seven-year term, plus a €10,000 application fee. Holding both licenses costs €5,000,000. Renewal costs the same as first issue. No annual license fee applies.

The lowest verifiable state-fee entry is €2,010,000, the €10,000 application fee plus the €2,000,000 Type 2 license fee. Two further amounts are regulatory capital, not fees. Paid-up share capital of at least €200,000 stays inside the company. The €500,000 letter of guarantee is issued by a credit institution and is not a payment to the HGC.

Greece has the highest entry cost of the European licenses covered on this site. Malta, Romania and Portugal charge license and authorisation fees in the tens or hundreds of thousands of euro. Greece charges millions, due on approval and again on each renewal.

Renewal cost and term extension

Extension runs for a further seven years. At least one year before the license expires, the holder applies to the HGC for an extension for an equal period. The fee on extension matches first issue: €3,000,000 for Type 1 and €2,000,000 for Type 2. Renewal is a capital event on the seven-year cycle, not a nominal charge, and the long-run model has to carry it.

What taxes apply to a Greece gaming license holder?

A Greece gaming license holder pays state participation of 35% of gross profit on all games of chance, and 30% on horse race betting. Company profit is taxed separately under general Greek income tax rules. Players are taxed on winnings, which affects retention rather than operator revenue.

The 30% rate covers horse race betting on a Type 1 license. Mutual betting on horse races sits outside the online licensing regime. An exclusive 20-year concession for that product went to Horse Races S.A., an OPAP subsidiary, in 2015.

The player winnings tax, set by Law 5219/2025, changed on 1 July 2026 for session games only. Casino games, poker and slots moved from 15% to 20% in the €100.01 to €500 band, and from 20% to 30% above €500. Betting is unaffected, and the per-slip scale of 0%, 2.5%, 5% and 7.5% still applies.

The scale applies to a player's net profit, so the effect lands on retention rather than on the operator's own tax bill. Greek gross profit tax and Greek corporate income tax stack, so model the two together rather than in sequence.

What changed in Greek gambling regulation in 2026?

Law 5313/2026, published in Government Gazette A' 102 on 25 June 2026, tightened enforcement against unlicensed gambling in Greece. Article 66 amended Article 51 of Law 4002/2011 and created standalone liability for promoting unlicensed operators, with fines from €5,000 to €50,000 per violation.

Liability reaches beyond operators. Affiliates, influencers, broadcasters, publishers, blogs and advertising networks fall inside the rule, and the scope covers sites registered in Greece regardless of content language.

The 2026 enforcement package extends past advertising. Credit institutions, payment institutions and e-money institutions operating in Greece must block transactions linked to unlicensed operators, cutting both deposits and payouts. The HGC blacklist now covers mobile applications as well as websites, domains and IP addresses.

Blocking moved to a Response Policy Zone (RPZ) inside the HGC's own DNS infrastructure. The change shortens the gap between a new domain appearing and access being cut. The Hellenic Telecommunications and Post Commission reports new .gr and .ελ registrations to the HGC for matching against the blacklist.

The HGC also grew. Permanent positions rose from 80 to 110, with 40 specialised roles in data analytics, digital supervision and market intelligence.

Enforcement followed the law quickly. In June 2026 the HGC filed criminal complaints against 18 influencers and streamers over promotion of unlicensed gambling platforms.

What ongoing compliance obligations apply after licensing?

A Greece gaming license holder certifies every game before launch and feeds transaction and gameplay data to the HGC. Player identification runs through the HGC Central Information System. Responsible gambling tools, AML duties under Law 4557/2018 and affiliate control apply continuously.

Player protection is prescriptive. Operators make players set deposit, loss and time limits at the start of the first session. Reality checks and self-exclusion follow, along with a register of self-excluded players and a block on anyone under 21.

AML obligations sit on Law 4557/2018 and HGC Decision 554/5/21.04.2021. Customer due diligence triggers at €2,000 on a wager or a payout, whether in one transaction or several linked ones. A compliance officer is appointed, records are kept for five years, and suspicious activity is reported to the Hellenic financial intelligence unit.

Affiliate control is a licensee obligation, not an affiliate-only one. A licensed operator may work only with affiliates holding a suitability permit and entered in the HGC Register of Affiliates.

Commercial communication follows Regulation 79292 ΕΞ 2020. Advertising carries responsible gambling messaging and helpline details, and states the prohibition for minors and self-excluded players. Targeting vulnerable groups is banned, as is presenting gambling as a way to make money.

Payments stay inside the regulated perimeter. Deposits and payouts run only through credit, payment or e-money institutions established in Greece, the EU or the EEA.

Is a Greece gaming license valid in other EU countries?

No. A Greece gaming license authorises games of chance for people located in Greece and does not replace a license in any other EU country. European Union law provides no mutual recognition in gambling, so an operator entering Spain, Italy or Germany applies to each national regulator separately.

Two separate rules get confused here. The seat requirement lets a company registered anywhere in the EU or the EEA apply in Greece. That rule is about who may apply, not about which markets the resulting license opens.

A Greek license carries no passport. Marketing that describes the license as an EU license, or as access to the European market, misstates the legal position. The exposure runs to every market served without a local license.

The practical consequence is a market-by-market build. An operator that wants Greece, Spain and Romania holds three licenses, meets three sets of technical requirements, and pays three sets of fees and taxes. Each regulator certifies games independently, and certification in Greece does not carry across.

Greece ring-fences deliberately. Payment restrictions and local hosting tie the license to the Greek market. The license does not reach a wider European one.

Are crypto payments allowed under a Greece gaming license?

No. Greece does not permit cryptocurrency for gambling deposits or payouts by licensed operators. Payment for participation and payment of winnings run only through credit, payment or e-money institutions established in Greece, the EU or the EEA. Accepting crypto breaches license conditions.

No separate crypto regime exists at the HGC. Greek gambling rules create no licensing route for operators accepting digital currencies, and no exemption covers stablecoins or tokens.

The restriction is structural rather than technological. Greek law ties every deposit and payout to a regulated institution that can identify the player. An intermediary that breaks that chain breaks the license condition with it.

Winnings are paid into an account the player holds at a credit or payment institution established in Greece, the EU or the EEA. No third party may sit between the operator and the player, apart from those institutions.

Nothing in the 2026 reforms opened a crypto route. The enforcement package moved the other way, obliging payment institutions to block transactions linked to unlicensed operators.

How does a Greece gaming license compare with Malta, Romania and Portugal?

Greece charges the highest entry fee of the four. A Greece gaming license costs €3,000,000 or €2,000,000 for a seven-year term. Malta, Romania and Portugal charge annual fees in the tens or hundreds of thousands. Greek gaming tax of 35% of gross profit sits above Malta, Portugal and Romania.

The contrast is not only price. Greece asks for the whole license fee against a seven-year term, so the money leaves the balance sheet before the first Greek player registers. Malta and Romania spread cost annually, which suits an operator testing a market. Portugal sits between the two, with a three-year term and taxes that split by product.

Read the tax lines with the fee lines rather than separately. Romania charges a far lower entry cost but taxes gross gaming revenue at 30% with a floor of €480,000 a year. Greece charges millions at entry and 35% of gross profit, with no annual license fee at all.

What are the advantages of a Greece gaming license?

A Greece gaming license gives a seven-year term with no annual license fee, a statutory two-month decision deadline, and access to a growing regulated market. Greek gambling gross gaming revenue reached €3.07 billion in 2025, up 6.7%, with the online segment at €1.19 billion and 24 licensed online operators.

The HGC annual report published on 16 July 2026 puts 2025 gross gaming revenue at €3.07 billion, 6.7% above 2024. Remote gambling grew 10.5% to €1.19 billion and reached 38.79% of the total.

Competition is finite. At the end of 2025, 24 operators held online licenses, with further applicants in the pipeline. That is a small field for an EU market of this size.

The seven-year term is long by European standards, and no annual license fee falls due inside it. Planning runs on one large payment rather than a recurring one, which changes how the investment case is modelled.

The two-month decision deadline is statutory. The HGC either decides inside two months of a complete application, or the application counts as rejected. An applicant gets a fixed point to plan around rather than an open-ended wait.

Enforcement works in the licensee's favour. Domain blocking, blacklist coverage of mobile applications and payment blocking by banks all target unlicensed competition. That competition chases the same players a licensee pays to acquire.

EU status carries weight with banks and payment partners. A Greek license is issued by an EU regulator inside the EU payments perimeter, which shortens conversations that an offshore license lengthens.

What are the disadvantages of a Greece gaming license?

Entry cost is the main disadvantage of a Greece gaming license: €3,000,000 or €2,000,000, due on approval and again on renewal. Gaming tax runs at 35% of gross profit. The license covers Greece only. Crypto payments and betting exchanges are both prohibited.

Local requirements add setup that a passporting market does not. Licensees seated outside Greece install a physical safe server in the country and run the site on a .gr domain. Documents are filed in Greek or with certified translation. A local representative is appointed where there is no Greek registration or branch.

The minimum age narrows the addressable audience. Casino games, poker, bingo and betting are limited to people aged 21 and over, against 18 in most EU markets.

Compliance load rose in 2026. Advertising liability now reaches affiliates and influencers with fines from €5,000 to €50,000 per violation. The player winnings tax on casino sessions moved to 20% and 30%, which pushes on retention in the highest-margin vertical.

Product scope is narrower than it looks. Betting exchanges are prohibited outright, and cryptocurrency is closed to licensed operators.

Renewal repeats the entry cost. Every seven years the same €3,000,000 or €2,000,000 falls due, so the model has to carry a capital event rather than a renewal fee.

Why choose MGL for a Greece gaming license?

MGL prepares and files Greece gaming license applications as a licensing advisor, not as a platform or content supplier. Work covers the corporate structure and capital, suitability dossiers, and coordination of technical certification. Greek-language filing, the letter of guarantee and post-license compliance follow.

Greek applications fail because the file is incomplete, not because the plan is weak. The documents in Article 46 of Law 4002/2011 have to arrive complete, because the two-month clock starts only on a complete application.

MGL handles the parts outside a platform vendor's scope. That means incorporating or restructuring the applicant so the seat and the €200,000 capital meet the rule. The work also covers fit and proper evidence for shareholders, directors and critical-function staff. The €500,000 letter of guarantee is arranged with an EU or EEA credit institution.

Certification and filing run in parallel. MGL coordinates accredited testing of games and systems against HGC specifications. The Greek translation and the submission through the HGC information system are managed in parallel. A local representative is appointed where the applicant has no Greek branch.

After issue, the obligations continue. MGL supports the AML function, the responsible gambling framework and the commercial communication rules under Regulation 79292 ΕΞ 2020. Support also covers the affiliate suitability regime, which determines who a licensee may legally work with.

MGL has obtained 300+ licenses for operators across offshore, EU and national regimes.