Greece is finally moving ahead with its plans to implement a new licensing regime for online gambling operators.

On Sept. 5, Greek Deputy Finance Minister Trifon Alexiadis informed legislators that the relevant provisions of the new online gambling licensing rules had been finalized and would be made public “in a maximum of one month.” Gambling Compliance subsequently reported that a public tender for online licenses would open in October.

Alexiadis said the Greek government had learned a lot from its failed experiment of issuing 24 ‘temporary’ online gambling licenses in 2011. These licenses were suspended the following year as the government sought to boost the value of Greek betting monopoly OPAP ahead of the government’s sale of its one-third stake in the company.

Alexiadis underscored the desire of the government to curtail the activities of online gambling companies who “avoid paying huge amounts of taxes, simply because they are established in other countries.” Alexiadis said the government would ensure that this “lawlessness” would end.