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The Greek gambling regulator has said it will give back money seized in player accounts as a part of its legal action against operator Betshop.
Dimitris Dzanatos, the president of the Gaming Supervision and Control Committee (EEEP), stated in a press release: "The intention of the EEEP is, always in accordance with the Gaming Regulations, to pay the amounts owed to the players. To realise this goal, it is necessary to formulate the appropriate technical and procedural conditions. EEEP is already working in this direction."
Earlier this summer, the EEEP seized the accounts of Betshop in an ongoing tax case against it.
At the time, Betshop said it had no choice but to cease operations until the case was resolved, and that the lack of tax payment was due to poor communication on the part of the regulator.
Betshop was fined half a million euros for withholding taxes owed between the years 2013 and 2014. Betshop has yet to pay, as it claims the fee was calculated arbitrarily. The operator also claimed any communications with the authorities over the amount owed had been ignored.
Betshop previously stated: “Our company is in the unfortunate position to announce that, due to a sudden and abusive seizure of its customer service bank account by the tax authorities, it is forced to suspend its operations until the resulting issue is rectified.”
As a result of the actions of the EEEP, customers were unable to access money that they had deposited in accounts on the Betshop platform.
After a meeting of the EEEP’s member committee on August 9, the organisation decided to initiate procedures “for the payment of amounts owed to players who had an electronic player account on the company's website and do not have access to the money owed to them”.
According to local reports, Betshop is in talks with other operators to take over their customer list, who will then release the money owed to players as a sort of customer buy-in. Players who are not in favour of this form of compensation can instead receive their funds from the EEEP.
