Greek affiliate arrested

[jetset]

GREEK AFFILIATE PROSECUTED

Piraeus webmaster arrested by Athens police

Operating an affiliate website in Greece could be a dangerous business, according to reports from the Greek online newspaper eKathimerini.

The publication reports on the arrest of an unnamed 37 year old Piraeus man charged with linking Greek and other visitors with five different British betting companies.

The man, who launched the site in 2001, is seemingly successful, as the article claims he is believed to have pocketed around Euro 60 000 in commissions per month for his efforts.

Police said that it was the first arrest of its kind in Greece.

Locals are being drawn to foreign betting companies by better odds and the ability to bet in real time, while the sporting event is taking place.

The case has its roots in a Greek law that specifies that only state-controlled gaming company OPAP can accept wagers in Greece and that placing a bet with anyone else – even electronically – is illegal.

“The monopoly in set betting will continue to exist,” a senior source from the electronic crimes squad told eKathimerini.

“With the exception of England, all EU member states are in favour of a monopoly for financial reasons and for also helping to avoid criminal practices,” he added, interestingly prioritising the rationale behind the law.

The loss of tax and licensing revenues for the state has prompted the crackdown on offenders, eKathimerini continues, while OPAP is also seeing its market share shrink.

OPAP has started targeting newspapers and other forms of media that carry ads from British betting firms by launching litigation against the media.

A police source said yesterday that even Greek gamblers will be charged in a bid to cut demand for the betting services.

[Simmo!]

Well at least they're honest in admitting it's a monopoly and it's about the money! But it's a dangerous precedent in that effectively running an informational website can be illegal. Surely the same principle could be applied to Amazon affiliates or Google Adsense users - the punter's money is effectively going "offshore" there too. It's effectively setting the precedent that Greek residents should only be able to spend their money within Greece. Applying that rule to one industry and not others doesn't seem acceptable. Nor does applying it to all industries for that matter aside from the fact it would invite a round-about embargo effect on the Greek economy over time..

[Mousey]

Yikes!

[tennis_balls]

anybody want to pool some money and send simmo! to Athens to work this out?

[littlebit]

Where do I send my donation ,Tennis_Balls?

[nektar4d]

GREEK AFFILIATE PROSECUTED

Piraeus webmaster arrested by Athens police
...
Police said that it was the first arrest of its kind in Greece.

Very interesting indeed.
Before a couple of years some big english betting companies got to European Court with OPAP for this monopoly. I don't what happened but the overall scene remains similar.

As a webmaster or as a big company you can offer your services from domains outside any specific country (many betting companies have .com sites with greek pages as well).

So far, most of the bamblers-bettors use the internet anyway and such an arrest will not stop the players. OPAP is losing money more and more and I don't think this can be stopped. A bettor or casino player can call sportingbet or williams hill etc and speak in Greek (!) for support.
How could the police stop them?!
They just picked this unlucky guy to make noise as an example for the news.

I remember a funny incident once when there was a big story on the TV about the "dangerous" advertising CDs of casinos.
I could recognise the CD-envelope and it was Williams Hill!
I was surprised to hear how dangerous they found that, as if the reporters and the future "victims" were specialists on internet financials crimes!

Papers and TV news are exaggerating too much for their reasons, far away from the real facts.

As long as we have neteller, click2pay and moneybookers, we can enjoy the games