Greek gov prosecuted 18 influencers for unlicensed gambling promotion

[alani123]

It seems as though the Greek government is trying its best to prosecute people profiting from promoting unlicensed gambling. The current government introduced a licensing scheme for casinos and already more than a dozen are operating legally with licenses issued within the country. However, looking to avoid expensive licenses and regulatory procedures many casinos will skip the licensing procedures entirely and just go straight to guerilla promotion with influencers.

These casinos change their domains every day or so to avoid blocks playing cat and mouse games with the government. Perhaps the owners of these casinos were registering the legal entities abroad and maybe even they themselves were abroad. As per the soft2bet scandal many of Europe's illegal casinos had their true beneficiary behind them in Israel!

As for Greece, the ministry stated around 900 thousand people last year alone played in illegal casinos. For a country of 10 million people, that surely is significant.

Source in Greek: https://www.megatv.com/2026/10/07/minyseis-se-18-influencers-gia-proothisi-paranomou-tzogou/

Source in English:
https://europeangaming.eu/portal/latest-news/2026/10/08/215644/greece-18-influencers-criminal-complaints-illegal-gambling/

[DanWalker]

This situation in Greece is absolutely mind boggling. I’m not sure if it’s entirely right for government’s regulatory body EEEP to file criminal complaint against those 18 influencer and streamer. But 900000 people that’s almost 10% of country's population involved in illegal game! This is no small matter. It’s on massive scale. And often, it is these social media promoter who lead  general public astray.

[Orpichukwu]

As for Greece, the ministry stated around 900 thousand people last year alone played in illegal casinos. For a country of 10 million people, that surely is significant.

Sometimes I used to ask this question: how do the government know the number of people who are accessing illegal sites and how much they have spent on those illegal casinos so far, and yet they don’t use that pattern to block their citizens from accessing those places and possibly block payment remitting (crypto deposit excluded)? There might be third-party trackers, but the numbers they give most times appear unbelievable to me, especially when it’s not just talking about the number of gamblers but above 8% of their total population, including children and adults.

[BALIK]

These casinos change their domains every day or so to avoid blocks playing cat and mouse games with the government. Perhaps the owners of these casinos were registering the legal entities abroad and maybe even they themselves were abroad. As per the soft2bet scandal many of Europe's illegal casinos had their true beneficiary behind them in Israel!

Regarding what you mentioned about Soft2Bet or Israeli beneficiaries, those underlying gaming operation are incredibly shady.

The way these site constantly switch domain to keep those games running mean cat and mouse game with government will just drag on indefinitely.

My point is, what's the point of harassing only those who are promoting game! No effective action can be taken against those who are controlling entire business sitting abroad.

[Cantsay]

If you read about the move the Greek government made towards regulators around June this year, you would know that those influencers were simply courting death and weren't smart.

This same Greek government broadened the power of regulators so they would be able to conduct wider investigations and hunt down illegal gambling in the country, if that is not clue enough that the government is dead serious about putting a stop to illegal gambling, then I don't know what would be a clue for them.

I don't know their next move but with these two movements that have made news headlines, the first was the strengthening of Hellenic Gaming Commission (EEEP) and then this prosecution of influencers.

[alani123]

These casinos change their domains every day or so to avoid blocks playing cat and mouse games with the government. Perhaps the owners of these casinos were registering the legal entities abroad and maybe even they themselves were abroad. As per the soft2bet scandal many of Europe's illegal casinos had their true beneficiary behind them in Israel!

Regarding what you mentioned about Soft2Bet or Israeli beneficiaries, those underlying gaming operation are incredibly shady.

The way these site constantly switch domain to keep those games running mean cat and mouse game with government will just drag on indefinitely.

My point is, what's the point of harassing only those who are promoting game! No effective action can be taken against those who are controlling entire business sitting abroad.

It takes a lot of international cooperation to shut down these operations. It might happen with a lot of coordination. Like seizing servers in one place, shutting down offshore accounts in another, and maybe arresting individuals in another place.

But for one, Israel is never going to seize money and extradite their criminals. And secondly, island nations like Cyprus are ntk going to give away their shady offshore account structure so easily. It's a great source of income for them, so more likely then not they'll never harm the lawyers that offer these services.

So really the ones left most exposed from these ordeals are the ones promoting whole staying in the country these casinos target to extract money from.

[tiCeR]

This situation in Greece is absolutely mind boggling. I’m not sure if it’s entirely right for government’s regulatory body EEEP to file criminal complaint against those 18 influencer and streamer. But 900000 people that’s almost 10% of country's population involved in illegal game! This is no small matter. It’s on massive scale. And often, it is these social media promoter who lead  general public astray.

The biggest problem, and this is not only the case in Greece, is the average age of the audiences of those influencers. It is very often children and younger people, age 14+ and so on, who sign up at a casino that does not require KYC. Payments can be made via parents credit card or PayPal, I have seen a report about that a while ago. These influencers are faking the hell out of their sessions, pretending they are winning all the time, but I assume we agree that most of it must be staged. It is probably some of the worst advertising you can do given that these influencers do know the average age of their followers.

And as for prosecuting the influencers, that's probably the first and most effective step they should go. Trying to identify single individuals out of a pool of 900,000 won't pay off unless they set brutal precedents publicly.

There was a wave of influencers that recently relocated to places like Madeira or Malta because they can do their casino promotions there without having to fear authorities. However, as far as I know, if they promote it to audiences from their home country and they return to their home country, I think they may get locked up at the airport.

[Queen uloma]

As for Greece, the ministry stated around 900 thousand people last year alone played in illegal casinos. For a country of 10 million people, that surely is significant.

Sometimes I used to ask this question: how do the government know the number of people who are accessing illegal sites and how much they have spent on those illegal casinos so far, and yet they don’t use that pattern to block their citizens from accessing those places and possibly block payment remitting (crypto deposit excluded)? There might be third-party trackers, but the numbers they give most times appear unbelievable to me, especially when it’s not just talking about the number of gamblers but above 8% of their total population, including children and adults.

I think some of all these statistics may not be accurate because tracking people that are using illegal casinos isn’t that easy. Government can monitor bank transactions and payment patterns but it will be difficult to know the exact number of users and how much they have spend, most especially with crypto. Rather than relying only on estimates, I feel they’re suppose to focus more on getting reliable data and protecting people from harmful gambling.

[BALIK]

It takes a lot of international cooperation to shut down these operations. It might happen with a lot of coordination. Like seizing servers in one place, shutting down offshore accounts in another, and maybe arresting individuals in another place.

But for one, Israel is never going to seize money and extradite their criminals. And secondly, island nations like Cyprus are ntk going to give away their shady offshore account structure so easily. It's a great source of income for them, so more likely then not they'll never harm the lawyers that offer these services.

So really the ones left most exposed from these ordeals are the ones promoting whole staying in the country these casinos target to extract money from.

just imagine, they are targeting local influencer. Apparently because they are brainwashing local public.

But if root cause or mastermind remain out of reach then this game will just go on forever! If government only catch small fish while big fish stay in shadows comfortably raking in hundred of thousands of euro, then breaking this cycle of illegal game will never be possible. Besides, you’re absolutely right about need for international coordination. But unless more pressure is applied at EU or Interpol level, there’s simply no end to these offshore liability.

[Iranus]

just imagine, they are targeting local influencer. Apparently because they are brainwashing local public.

But if root cause or mastermind remain out of reach then this game will just go on forever! If government only catch small fish while big fish stay in shadows comfortably raking in hundred of thousands of euro, then breaking this cycle of illegal game will never be possible. Besides, you’re absolutely right about need for international coordination. But unless more pressure is applied at EU or Interpol level, there’s simply no end to these offshore liability.

Targeting 18 influencer is the easiest task for Greek authority. They reside in country and their social media account are publicly accessible. However unlike illegal gambling operator, they cannot easily hide by simply switching to new domain.

Actual issue lies in why 900K people are using these site. Licensed gambling site may be more expensive or heavily regulated. Sometimes those could be less appealing than illegal one. On the other hand illegal site allow for easy transaction using cryptocurrency.

[Agbamoni]

It seems as though the Greek government is trying its best to prosecute people profiting from promoting unlicensed gambling.

This is the type of trap journalists set up against people, organizations, and the government.

In this first sentence. The statement should be "it seems as though the Greek government is trying its best to prosecute people promoting unlicensed gambling". Instead, you decide to add profiting to make the government look bad. As if the government is stopping people from making money through their influence. From the article I read, the Greek government is interested in all influencers promoting unlicensed gambling, whether they are profiting from it or not.

[DiMarxist]

This is a very good one coming from the government of Greece, this shows that they are really committed to fighting unregistered Casinos which are operating illigally in their territory. I believe that the reason why these unregistered casinos are doing so is for the sole purpose of invading paying tax. Which is a very bad thing to by any casino because you can't be doing any business in a country without contributing to the development of such place.About the eighteen influencers that have been arrested, it's a welcome development because there is no way you can be supporting illigality. It's more of aiding and abating criminality which on itself is a criminal activity.

[Dogedegen]

This is finally a good thing. We have let influencers and the situation about promotions get completely out of control. If they can promote any kind of scam, false information, illegal content like illegal casinos then they are making money on crime and they are doing it knowingly. We should not let them damage others or help them evade the laws without consequences. They should face financial fines and sanctions like jail time or even ban from being an influencer. This will help a lot tackle illegal gambling but it will also help with other parts. If you just look in the last few years how many crypto scams influencers promoted and made big money, even many of them were complete rugs and scams.

Actual issue lies in why 900K people are using these site. Licensed gambling site may be more expensive or heavily regulated. Sometimes those could be less appealing than illegal one. On the other hand illegal site allow for easy transaction using cryptocurrency.

We don't know the real answer but it is an interesting question. There was a thread about illegal gambling in the european union, but similarly the european union does not know the real answer to this. We need to run a big survey directly with the people who are gambling on those platforms to find out why.

[Filicius]

Among those 18 influencers alone they covered 3.6 million followers. Although they are not unique users because each one could follow more than one influencer, that's an alarming enough figure in a country with a population as relatively small as Greece, so we could say that they have been tremendously efficient with this operation, but they have also looked for the easiest way to tackle the situation, because in reality these influencers have little responsibility compared to real decision-makers in unlicensed casinos.

[Taricoins]

I don't think the action of the Greek government is bad, especially rounding up those influencers because they are kind of dumb, it's like this casinos they wants to make hella profit without remitting to the government uses this influencers as pawn to get more users without damage to themselves while the influencers get all the heat, it's their for agreeing with a defaulting platform and they should have researched better before engaging.

[Coyster]

I'm surprised that these individuals agreed to openly promote these illegal websites online, they ought to know what was coming for them for doing that. All 18 promoters have a combined followership of 3.6m, and that's small when you look at it in isolation, but when you compare it with the population of the country, which is around 9 million, then you get it that it's a large number.

These illegal platforms would have to find more cladestine means of advertising their services, because after this event, i am not sure they'd find promoters who are willing to take their money.

[Charles-Tim]

Influencers should make their investigation very well to making sure the gambling site they want to advertise for or promote is licensed in their country. I noticed most influencers are not like this, all they care for mostly is the money that the gambling sites are paying them. This is happening in many countries. Gambling sites that want to operate in a country should get gambling license in the country. And at least the influencers in the country should be careful before promoting the sites. But government should also warn the influencers before taking action.

[Swordsoffreedom]

It seems as though the Greek government is trying its best to prosecute people profiting from promoting unlicensed gambling. The current government introduced a licensing scheme for casinos and already more than a dozen are operating legally with licenses issued within the country. However, looking to avoid expensive licenses and regulatory procedures many casinos will skip the licensing procedures entirely and just go straight to guerilla promotion with influencers.
These casinos change their domains every day or so to avoid blocks playing cat and mouse games with the government. Perhaps the owners of these casinos were registering the legal entities abroad and maybe even they themselves were abroad. As per the soft2bet scandal many of Europe's illegal casinos had their true beneficiary behind them in Israel!

Around €1.8 billion was wagered on illegal market last year as well. It is not net profit of operator or  total loss of players. Similarly, 900k people have participated in illegal gambling which does not mean that they are all gambling addict. Has the question ever crossed your mind as to why so many people are using unlicensed platform? Will they move to licensed casino just by increasing enforcement? IDK

If payment restriction, account verification or other barrier on legitimate platform make player experience worse then those reason need to be understood as well. Of course this does not mean that illegal operator should be exempted.

[Josefjix]

What do you mean by prosecuted, you mean kill these influencers for promoting unlicensed casinos in Greece? I need to understand you with the choice of word you used to describe this news my friend.
After all, this isn't new to me, I've seen lots of news exagarating on this in many news outlet.

[aioc]

We have the same law here in our country that prosecutes influencers for promoting illegal gambling sites, and it carries hefty penalties and imprisonment.

Authorities understand the convincing power of influencers; the gamblers turn blindly to the status of the casino, whether it's a scam or illegal, when they are promoted by their favorite influencers.

Prosecuting them sends signals that the government will not tolerate this because of its harmful effects.

Popularity offers no immunity, and influence carries responsibility. Anyone who uses their power and reach to promote illegal gambling must know that they will be identified, scrutinised, and face the consequences provided for by law.’