Several motions have been filed with the Council of State, Greece's highest administrative court, to block a decision by the national gaming watchdog to grant licenses for the operation of roughly 35,000 video lottery terminal (VLTs) throughout the country.
Several motions have been filed with the Council of State, Greece's highest administrative court, to block a decision by the national gaming watchdog to grant licenses for the operation of roughly 35,000 video lottery terminal (VLTs) throughout the country.
It was the municipality of Athens' turn on Thursday to file a motion against the decision by the independent authority, called the Commission for Supervision and Regulation of Gaming.
Other litigants trying to block the operation of VTLs are casinos around the country, such as the one on the Ionian island of Corfu, in the northeast city of Alexandroupolis, and another outside the western port city of Patras.
The two biggest casinos in Greece, the Athens-area Regency atop Mont Parnes and Club Hotel Casino Loutraki, had filed motions in the previous days.
On its part, the municipal government of Athens, the largest in the country, focused its opposition on the abolition of a minimum distance rule between establishments operating VLTs, warning of the possibility of clusters of gaming arcades sprouting up within urban residential neighborhoods.
Casino managements said the operation of VLTs will dilute the strict framework for supervising and regulating gaming in the country.
Greece's casinos have seen a dramatic decrease in turnover over recent years, and the prospect of additional competition from practically every betting parlor in the country is considered, by the former, as an ominous prospect for their balance sheets.