Greece plans wider powers for the Hellenic Gaming Commission to target black market gambling

The Greek government has sent a bill to Parliament that would give the Hellenic Gaming Commission (EEEP) broader powers, more staff and a larger enforcement role against illegal gambling. For PSPs, the useful part is simple: the draft explicitly ties enforcement to payment channels, online accounts, domains and access restrictions.

1. The bill is titled “Regulations for the Hellenic Gaming Commission (EEEP) and Improvements to the Gaming Framework,” and it is being pushed by the Ministry of Finance and National Economy as a primary objective. The proposals were published to the Greek Parliament this afternoon, which starts the legislative review process.
2. At the beginning of 2026, Economic Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis said Greece would fast track measures against illegal gambling, which he said was taking €1.6-to-€2bn out of the Greek economy and causing a direct state tax loss of €600m. He also said Greece would be the first European nation to design a specific legislative framework to combat illegal gambling as both a criminal and economic threat.
3. The EEEP says 2024 data showed that 9.5% of the population, or around 799,000 citizens, had engaged with unlicensed gambling at least once. That is the core number here: a sizable share of the market is touching unlicensed supply, which is exactly the sort of leakage regulators and licensed operators tend to worry about.
4. The regulator’s permanent workforce would rise from 80 to 110 positions, with new hires focused on information technology, cyber security, intelligence gathering, market analysis and enforcement. In practice, that means a more specialised team to monitor websites, track payment channels and identify criminal networks operating outside Greece’s regulated market.
5. The bill would also expand the EEEP’s powers to order the immediate removal of illegal gambling content, websites and associated online accounts, strengthen Greece’s blacklist of unlicensed operators, and add more controls over domain names and internet access restrictions. The Gaming Inspectors Corps would gain enhanced powers too, with inspectors granted the status of special investigative officer.

The other point worth noting for high-risk payment businesses is that the ministry is not treating this as a narrow gaming-policy tweak. The stated aim is a dedicated enforcement structure for transnational activity, and the bill explicitly links the regulator’s work to payment channels. For operators, that usually means closer scrutiny of acquiring, processing chains and the accounts sitting behind them.