Greek gov prosecuted 18 influencers for unlicensed gambling promotion

[o48o]

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

I don't blame for influencers being surprised that they broke laws on this one. Gambling advertising laws vary in EU countries and are evolving a lot.
In order to know what you can do with sponosrship, direct adverising or with specific games requires constant monitoring to keep up. And it's not like these are talking points with common people sp they could just ask, so influencers are left alone to figure it out. Unless they have lawyers on their teams to keep up with latest laws.

Every time when i am thinking we are going into some specific direction on gambling regulations, here comes new government who wants to go to opposite direction.

[rachael9385]

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.

That's what some casinos do, to avoid any form of regulation they pay influencers so they don't pay taxes to the government which is actually dumb because if the government doesn't approve of this there is no way that the business can run smoothly in that country. I wonder why influencers in these countries would take the risk of accepting such offers when they know that there might be consequences for their actions. They only think about the money involved without considering that they might get prosecuted for it.

[Hispo]

What catches my attention the most is the percentage of people within Greece who are gambling in illegal services, services which are not regulated within the EU.

It is what it is... Cannot stop someone with a VPN and desire to gamble

I assume those people are simply trying to avoid KYC or trying to take advantage of better odds on betting markets by depositing on unregulated casinos instead of regulated ones.

Yea, or they have a notion that worldwide reputation and thousands of reviews over many years are a better warrant of honesty than EU's licence

If there is demand for gambling, there will always be some offer of gambling services in the form of unregulated casinos, in the case casinos are not legal or fully regulated in the country, that is a fact. A fact which seems to be ignored by a lot of politicians and lawmakers around the planet.

In that sense, it is similar to drugs, addicted people are always willing to pay whatever they can in order to get their doses of drugs. In the same manner addicted gamblers will deposit in any casino which suits them the best.

[Tetu100]

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.

This is absolutely questionable bro. Because they are working literally as a chain, they are both partners in crime so what is the essence targeting just the promoters and leaving the head of it out, is so ridiculous so to speak.

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.

Is quite obvious how people are this greedy. If not why will paying of tax be a reason for not doing what is expected. You want to milked from a country but not interested in contributing a damm to where you are actually benefiting from. Perhaps, that is the height of it because I see no way this is becoming an issue that is automatically putting their source of income on the line. Anyway, a big kudos to the government for this great initiative. Maybe this move will remind them that they can't be faster than their shadow and for those that hasn't do the needful by legalizing or licensing their casino maybe common sense will advice them better on the right thing to do otherwise risk losing everything.

[Odusko]

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 these casinos they wants to make hella profit without remitting to the government uses this influencers as pawns 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.

That's what some casinos do, to avoid any form of regulation they pay influencers so they don't pay taxes to the government which is actually dumb because if the government doesn't approve of this there is no way that the business can run smoothly in that country. I wonder why influencers in these countries would take the risk of accepting such offers when they know that there might be consequences for their actions. They only think about the money involved without considering that they might get prosecuted for it.

From my experience with unregulated casino promoting within my country social space, I can relate with what the government may have concluded on for persecution pf those with Hugh fans base who tend to build on their popularity to promote scams to their followers, and the impact on society it citizens and the economic effects for the government.

Any developing country will adopt such an approach to protect its citizens from being scammed by fake illegal online casinos that operate within the country,

[l99l]

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.

I’ve been hearing a lot of news like this lately.
Countries are cracking down on unlicensed casinos and the influencers who promote them. I’m not sure what kind of penalties apply to this offense.I don't imagine the punishment is particularly severe. That said, since unregulated casinos don't pay taxes, they are essentially stealing public funds, so these interventions are justified.

[Junii]

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

I think it is easy for operators to target the people through influencers because now a days due to social media it is just a cup of tea also i think if government are really interested in stopping this then they have to find and arrest the operators too because when the government block any website they made another new domains so destroying the root is very necessary. Also the people who are using the unlicensed gambling sites they have to keep in mind that if any influencer promoting this does not mean this is good some influencers just care about there money.

[Coyster]

Prosecuting influencers doesn't really hurt the casinos as there are 100 more ready to take the place of the ones who got into trouble.

Are you sure about that, i like to believe it would depend on how hard they come down on these promoters and the kind of punishment meted out to them in the end. If at the end, they get fined a lot of money for example, which would make whatever amount they were paid irrelevant, then it could serve as a strong deterrent and make other promoters think twice before accepting offers from illegal casinos.

[DubemIfedigbo001]

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.

I wish the government of my country can do the same. Influencers have destroyed most of the youths with gambling promotions selling the mindset that "the more you gamble, the more you win" and lots of youths and even teenagers are buying the idea, resulting in persistent underage betting addictions and a very wasteful youthful age. I am a strong advocate of influencers being held accountable for the detrimental effects of what they advertise. They should be prosecuted and jailed accordingly.

[fredericktaylor]

I think it is easy for operators to target the people through influencers because now a days due to social media it is just a cup of tea also i think if government are really interested in stopping this then they have to find and arrest the operators too because when the government block any website they made another new domains so destroying the root is very necessary. Also the people who are using the unlicensed gambling sites they have to keep in mind that if any influencer promoting this does not mean this is good some influencers just care about there money.

When the government wants to completely control gambling, first of all, those who are operating casinos illegally have to be found and arrested, this is not an easy work, it is a very difficult work, because illegal casino managers always use various techniques to protect their secrets and operate casino so that they do not get reliable information through which they can be arrested. The initiative taken by the government is really good, so that gamblers can protect themselves from terrible destruction, so such steps have been taken but those gamblers who are addicted will not be aware of themselves and will continue to gamble by any way.

[Crypto Library]

Prosecuting influencers doesn't really hurt the casinos as there are 100 more ready to take the place of the ones who got into trouble.

Are you sure about that, i like to believe it would depend on how hard they come down on these promoters and the kind of punishment meted out to them in the end. If at the end, they get fined a lot of money for example, which would make whatever amount they were paid irrelevant, then it could serve as a strong deterrent and make other promoters think twice before accepting offers from illegal casinos.

Yes, this is a valid point because, the biggest weapon of online casinos is marketing, and a large part of this is done by social influencers.
And if measures can be taken here, and if they stop the promotion of such unlicensed casinos and rest work I mean, if the government regularly restricts their domains, then it will definitely have a big impact on such unlicensed casinos. Like if a car has four wheels, two of its wheels will be punctured.

If we take the United Kingdom as an example, then due to such measures being taken, engagement in 160 casinos decreased by 32%.

On average, across all 160 websites, there was a 32 percent decrease in engagement following disruption.

[henmark]

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.

They are doing the right thing. Casino operators should comply with their regulations and get licenses for their businesses if they want to operate within their jurisdiction. You can't expect to make money from a country running a centralized casino and face no consequences for it or any action taken against you or those who support you. Influencers should also take this seriously, because if gambling is generally legal within the country, and there are licensed and legally allowed casinos available, why would you want to associate yourself with unlicensed platforms and casinos? Even if they are paying you good money, it's not really worth it if you can face legal problems because of it.

Every country should do the same thing. They should find and ban platforms that are operating within their jurisdiction without complying with their rules and regulations, because businesses are supposed to operate legally if they are serious about their business. They do this because they don't want to pay any taxes or buy a license for their business, but they are still willing to operate within their country and hire people to promote their services within the country. This is too much, to be honest.

Prosecution of the caught influencers might set an example and others might avoid doing such things after that.

[OgNasty]

This is sort of scary. As more and more advertising gets aimed at social media influencers trying to make a buck, I think we’re going to see larger and larger scams from unreputable companies. Stay safe out there and do your homework on any service before you send them your hard earned money.

[Hazink]

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.

There are some influencer who don't know the casinos they are promoting are illegal. There are those who are aware and still accept advertising deals from them. There are laws in every country and these influencers really don't care unless what will enrich their own personal pocket. If they use this arrested people to set an example others will learn, but if they let them go by just asking them to pay a fine less than what they have made from this, others will continue to do it.