Greece's EEEP pushes unified player verification, eyes VIP bonuses

The Hellenic Gaming Commission (EEEP), Greece's independent gambling regulator, is working to close loopholes that let players register multiple times under different names across different platforms, according to reporting by iGaming Business citing local coverage of a recent EEEP-hosted meeting.

The regulator is also turning its attention to VIP and high-value customers, who can wager hundreds of thousands of euros a year. The EEEP has reportedly asked all 18 licensed operators for details of how they register, retain and incentivise these players, including the bonuses and hospitality on offer.

The Commission has said the information is being gathered for statistical purposes. Industry sources quoted in the local reporting take a different view, seeing the request as a step towards tighter oversight of a segment that has historically faced lighter scrutiny than the mass market.

The underlying worry is that generous VIP perks could push high-spending customers towards unlicensed foreign-facing platforms rather than keep them within the regulated, taxed Greek market. That would weaken both tax compliance and the regulator's control over premium play.

Separately, the EEEP is pursuing a broader overhaul of how players are certified. Operators currently verify customers individually, a fragmented model regulators now consider too weak for a market of this size.

The stated goal is a single, centralised checkpoint for player identification, possibly built around the state's e-Gov platform. That system already handles licence applications for affiliates and other industry roles, but it has no equivalent function for verifying ordinary players.

An earlier attempt to route certification through the banking sector was dropped after the General Secretariat for Information Systems said it lacked the legal basis to run such a scheme, underlining how far Greece still is from a workable single-gate solution.

The push for tighter identity controls comes as Greece's regulated gambling market keeps expanding. Ed Birkin, managing director at H2 Gambling Capital, said earlier this year that Greece was growing at around 15% year on year and was worth roughly €1.2 billion in gross win, with that figure forecast to reach €1.5 billion within a couple of years.

Birkin pointed to online channels as the main driver of that growth, adding that regulatory clarity and predictability are frequently cited as reasons gaming activity has concentrated in the licensed Greek market rather than drifting offshore.