Gambling tax receipts in Greece reached €369 million between January and August 2026, marking a 27.3% jump compared with the €290 million collected during the same stretch last year.
The figures, published in October, cover the broader gambling market and cannot be used to isolate precisely what the summer tax increase has contributed on its own.
Finance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis has nonetheless stood firmly behind the policy, framing the higher rates as a necessary tool to “grow revenues for public services.”
The changes, which took effect on 1 July, restructured the tax bands applied to online casino winnings across two thresholds, leaving only the smallest prizes untouched.
Players whose winnings fall between €100 and €500 now face a 20% rate, up from the previous 15%, while anything above €500 is taxed at 30% rather than the former 20%.
Prizes at or below the €100 mark continue to attract no tax at all, preserving an exemption designed to protect smaller-stakes players from the new burden.
Pierrakakis pointed to rising energy costs affecting both households and businesses as part of the rationale for identifying online casino winnings as a fresh revenue stream.
The tax overhaul sits alongside a broader initiative to strengthen the Hellenic Gaming Commission, known as the EEEP, as the regulator scales up its oversight of an increasingly digital gambling environment.
The EEEP is recruiting additional personnel with specialist expertise to handle the supervisory demands of the expanding online market, though questions remain about how those roles will be financed.
A recruitment notice connected to the expansion does not specify whether the new positions are being funded directly from the additional revenue generated by the player tax increase.
With the Greek government committed to both boosting public finances and tightening regulatory control, the dual pressure on the gambling sector looks set to intensify through the remainder of the year.
