Online drives 88% of Greek gambling growth

• Greek regulated GGR rose 8% to €1.558bn in the first half of 2026
• Online added €102.1m of the €116m increase, lifting its share to 41.5%
• The HGC has filed a criminal complaint against 18 influencers over alleged illegal promotion

Online gambling delivered 88% of the growth in Greece’s regulated market in the first half of 2026, according to figures presented by the Hellenic Gaming Commission (HGC) on 6 October.

Total gross gaming revenue (GGR) rose 8% to €1.558bn as officials outlined a criminal complaint against 18 influencers accused of promoting unlicensed gambling.

Retail stalls, online surges

Online GGR jumped 18.7% year on year to €647.2m, from €545.1m. The land-based segment grew just 1.6% to €910.6m, from €896.7m.

Of the roughly €116m added to the market, online supplied €102.1m. Land-based gambling contributed only €13.9m, according to Euro2day, which reported the HGC figures.

That shift is reshaping the market’s balance. Online’s share of GGR rose to 41.5%, from 37.8% a year earlier. Land-based gambling still holds the majority, but its share slipped to 58.5% from 62.2%.

Public revenue grew faster than the market itself. Receipts to the state from gambling rose 14.4% to €627.3m in the half, up from €548.3m.

Projections presented at the briefing point the same way. The Greek market is forecast to reach €5.25bn in GGR by 2040, a 72% increase on 2025.

Online is expected to do most of the work. Its GGR is projected to grow 125% from 2025 levels by 2040, against 39% for land-based gaming, taking it to half the market.

The gap widens in the second decade. Between 2031 and 2040, online is forecast to grow 5.6% a year, compared with just 1.3% for land-based gaming.

18 complaints, 3.6m followers

Illegal gambling remains the counterweight to that growth. Stakes on Greece’s illegal market reached around €1.8bn, and about 10% of the population has played illegal games, according to figures presented at the briefing.

The same figures put average annual spend per illegal player at about €2,000. Even so, channelisation into the licensed market exceeds 85%, officials said.

Influencers are now a direct target. The HGC has filed a criminal complaint with the Athens public prosecutor against 18 individuals. It concerns the alleged illegal promotion of gambling through their Instagram accounts.

The accounts have 3.6m followers combined, though overlapping audiences mean that is not 3.6m different people. The largest reaches 623,000. The accounts allegedly promoted 11 unlicensed websites and eight unlicensed providers.

The cases are at the preliminary investigation stage. In remarks carried by Naftemporiki’s English edition, Kyriakos Pierrakakis, Minister of National Economy and Finance, said:

“The message in every direction must be clear: the internet is not a jungle. Popularity does not provide immunity, and influence entails responsibility.”

Pierrakakis said illegal sites can appear, switch addresses and reappear very quickly. A single link, video, influencer or streamer can carry an illegal game to a huge audience, he added. Around 15,000 websites have been blacklisted so far.

He argued the state’s response has to get ahead of the illegal market rather than react to it. Repression alone is not enough, he said. He called for prevention, information and closer cooperation to tackle addiction, with minors and young people the priority.

AI joins the hunt

The HGC’s new firepower arrived with legislation passed in June. The Gaming Inspectors Corps gained special investigative powers. The commission also received 110 permanent posts, 40 of them for specialist scientific staff.

Illegal online promotion now attracts immediate administrative fines of up to €50,000 per violation.

The regulator is also leaning on artificial intelligence. An AI platform now searches for, checks and documents illegal gambling sites. That work previously relied on manual checks and complaints. AI agents scan for sites using set criteria, keywords and phrases.

In its trial, the platform handled 3,283 URLs, 1,151 of which it found itself. It identified 1,001 illegal sites and documented 734 well enough for the blacklist. It replaced 75% of manual work and sped up processing two to threefold.

On player protection, the HGC is piloting GameScanner, a tool from Danish firm Mindway AI. The pilot has covered about 400,000 online players since early September. It sorts accounts into five risk levels using three months of anonymised data from betting, slots, live casino and poker.

That data covers how often and how long people play, their bets, deposits and withdrawals, and changes in their losses and winnings. The pilot is due to finish by year-end. The HGC’s stated goal is to apply the model across the whole market.

That would make early-risk detection a standard compliance layer for licensed online operators in Greece. Prevention also reaches classrooms through Min Tsimpas!, an HGC programme for pupils from the fifth grade of primary school to the second year of upper secondary.

HGC officials also flagged emerging threats from Web3 technology and prediction markets. In their view, these blur the line between investing, forecasting and gambling. How the regulator classifies such products will shape the next phase of a market already tilting online.

With channelisation already high, the remaining illegal players are the hardest to win back. Enforcement alone rarely closes that last gap. That is why the influencer cases matter as much for deterrence as for punishment.