Greek Regulator Unveils AI Platform to Find Illegal Gambling Sites as 18 Influencers Face Complaints

Three months after Greece rewrote its gambling law, the Hellenic Gaming Commission has shown the finance minister an AI tool built to find and document illegal gambling websites. The minister brought news of criminal complaints against 18 influencers, and a set of figures that shows how large the job is.

• The Hellenic Gaming Commission (EEEP) presented an AI-based platform that detects, assesses and documents websites that may offer or promote illegal gambling, during a visit by finance minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis on 6 October
• Pierrakakis said criminal complaints have been filed against 18 influencers for promoting illegal gambling and that the cases are at the preliminary investigation stage, warning that "popularity offers no immunity and influence implies responsibility"
• Law 5313/2026, published on 25 June, fines unlicensed gambling promotion at €5,000 to €50,000 per violation, gives EEEP inspectors investigative powers and creates 110 permanent posts at the regulator
• By the minister's count, about €1.8 billion was wagered in Greece's illegal market in 2025 by about 900,000 people, with about 15,000 websites on the EEEP blacklist
• The EEEP has not said who built the platform, what it cost or whether it is in live use, while the Netherlands moves to make platforms liable for illegal gambling ads

Greece Moves From Passing a Gambling Law to Policing It

Minister of National Economy and Finance Kyriakos Pierrakakis visited the EEEP in Athens on Tuesday 6 October for a briefing on its work since Parliament passed the bill regulating the gambling market and strengthening the regulator, according to the EEEP's release of 7 October and the speech text published by his ministry.

The centrepiece was a digital platform that, according to the EEEP, uses artificial intelligence to detect, assess and document websites that may offer or promote illegal gambling. The regulator says it automates data collection and analysis and produces evidence for enforcement, so it can intervene earlier. The release does not name a supplier, give a cost or say whether the platform is in live use.

Pierrakakis said the aim was to map illegal networks, find sites and their promotion channels faster, and block them with the telecoms regulator EETT and internet providers. "In politics, a law is judged on the day it is passed," he said. "But above all it is judged by whether it is applied and, ultimately, by whether it changes reality."

Eighteen Complaints and a Rewritten Penalty Regime

The minister disclosed that criminal complaints have been filed against 18 influencers, whom he did not name, and that the cases are at the preliminary investigation stage. "The internet is not a jungle," he said. "Popularity offers no immunity and influence implies responsibility." A website being based outside Greece "does not mean there is tolerance", he added.

The legal basis is Law 5313/2026, an omnibus finance law published in the Government Gazette (A' 102) on 25 June 2026. Its article 66 adds an administrative fine of €5,000 to €50,000 per violation for anyone who promotes gambling by operators not on the EEEP's licensed list, and sanctions internet providers that fail to block blacklisted sites promptly. Article 67 rewrites the criminal penalties: advertising unlicensed gambling carries at least two years' imprisonment and a fine, and organising unlicensed games of chance at least 10 years and fines of €50,000 to €700,000, rising to €800,000 on a commercial scale or where minors are involved. Playing with an unlicensed operator carries up to two years. EEEP inspectors now act as special investigating officers, and the regulator gets 110 permanent posts, 40 for specialist staff.

The Scale of the Problem

Pierrakakis put three numbers on 2025: about €1.8 billion wagered illegally, about 900,000 people taking part and about 15,000 websites on the blacklist. EEEP figures reported by Capital.gr in July put the blacklist at 14,467 sites, up 51% in a year, and the licensed market's GGR at about €3 billion, up 6.7%, with €1.1 billion in public revenue.

EEEP chairman Antonis M. Vartholomaios said the regulator's new communication line, "The rules make the game", ties supervision to player protection, the central aim of its 2026 to 2030 Strategic Plan. A companion message, "Playing? Only with limits and safety!", urges preset time and money limits and licensed operators only, and a schools programme runs under the line "It looks like a game, it is not a game. Don't take the bait." "The foremost precondition for protecting the player is a regulated market, with clear rules for all providers," Vartholomaios said.

The Influencer Cases Will Test the Law Before the Platform Does

The 18 complaints are the most visible test of the new framework. Greece now has two routes against a promoter: an administrative fine of up to €50,000 and a criminal offence carrying at least two years. Criminal cases move slowly, and a paid promoter can stop posting, or post from abroad, long before a court rules. The Netherlands is pressing the platforms, and Spain has consulted on banning celebrity and influencer ads even for licensed brands. Greece is targeting the individual, and deterrence will depend on how fast the first cases end in a penalty, not on the size of the penalty available.

Detection Is Only Half the Problem

A blacklist that grew 51% in a year cannot be kept by hand, so a faster detection tool answers a real constraint. But a blocked site can reappear under a new address very quickly, as the minister acknowledged, and blocking depends on internet providers acting fast, which is why the law now fines those that do not. Slovakia has made the same bet on provider fines. The real test is time to block, and how many blocked operators keep taking Greek players' money, figures the EEEP has not published. Without them, a longer blacklist measures effort, not effect.

Telling Players to Go Licensed Means Making the Licensed Offer Worth It

The €1.8 billion is stakes and the €3 billion is GGR, so they cannot be read as market shares, and the method behind the illegal estimate is not published. Even so, 900,000 is a very large number of people in a country of about 10 million, and the law exposes each of them to up to two years in prison. The EEEP's message asks them to choose licensed operators such as OPAP, now part of Allwyn. That works only if the licensed offer competes on product and price, which is a matter for the ministry's tax and licensing policy, not the regulator.

Greece has given its regulator staff, powers and a detection tool, and the minister went in person to show he expects results. The numbers that will matter are how many sites stay blocked, and how many of the 18 complaints end in a penalty.