Greece’s video lottery terminal (VLT) market and the fortunes of local operator OPAP are in legal jeopardy following a ruling by the country’s top administrative court.

This week, Greece’s Council of State upheld an appeal filed by the Club Hotel Casino Loutraki in January 2017, which challenged regulations issued the previous year by the Hellenic Gaming Commission (EEEP) regarding the operation of 35k new VLTs (later reduced to 25k) by the former state-run lottery and betting monopoly OPAP.

OPAP began rolling out its VLTs in January 2017 and announced last week that its installed complement of machines now totaled nearly 19k. But the Council of State ruled that the EEEP’s 2016 authorization violated Article 29 of Law 4002/2011, “which requires the regulation of controversial issues with a regulation adopted by Presidential Decree.”

Since no decree was ever issued, the Council of State considers the VLT authorization to have been “unlawfully adopted by an incompetent person and should therefore be annulled.” However, while the ruling effectively leaves Greece’s VLT market in a legal vacuum, the court didn’t order a suspension of existing VLT operations. OPAP has yet to issue a public statement regarding the ruling.