Poker in Greece

[Aaldert92]

Hi everyone,

I am wondering if someone has experience with (online-)poker in Greece? I am a Dutch citizen and planning on going abroad for a while to play live/online poker.
(My site of choice would be pokerstars.)

I have a couple questions I hope someone could help me with:
- Is it possible to play there as a foreign citizen? (I am from the netherlands, where Pokerstars is banned at the moment)
- If so, do I need to have a permanent residence and be able to proof so? Or could I just go there for a month of 'vacation' and play whithout any problem
- What is the situation with deposit/withdrawal, can I use my Dutch bankaccount/card?
- Do the Greek gambling laws apply for the whole nation? (including Cyprus?)
- And finally what are the things I should be aware of regarding the legal aspects, such as visa or anything really?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

 

[G0930]

Hi everyone,

I am wondering if someone has experience with (online-)poker in Greece? I am a Dutch citizen and planning on going abroad for a while to play live/online poker.
(My site of choice would be Pokerstars.)

I have a couple questions I hope someone could help me with:
- Is it possible to play there as a foreign citizen? (I am from the Netherlands, where Pokerstars is banned at the moment)
- If so, do I need to have a permanent residence and be able to proof so? Or could I just go there for a month of 'vacation' and play whithout any problem

No sadly you cannot. I was at Rhodes last year on holiday.. Greece has it's own domain , is in the global playerpool but nobody except Greeks or people with a registered residence there can play.

- Do the Greek gambling laws apply for the whole nation? (including Cyprus?)

To my knowledge Cyprus has its own laws regarding onlinepoker

- And finally what are the things I should be aware of regarding the legal aspects, such as VISA or anything really?

You don't need a Visa... Schengen contract...
Any EU citizen can live and travel freely within the EU borders

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

 

[dreamer13]

Playing is only allowed in official establishments; players who ignore this rule will face severe punishment, including criminal liability. Anyone who wants to take part in gambling must receive a so-called “personal player card”, and the recipient must be at least 21 years old.

Club Hotel Casino Loutraki. "Loutraki" is the first casino, which appeared in 1928. In 2024, this is one of the largest gambling establishments in the world, located in Thessaloniki.

 

[fundiver199]

No sadly you cannot. I was at Rhodes last year on holiday.. Greece has it's own domain , is in the global playerpool but nobody except Greeks or people with a registered residence there can play.

And if the rules are similar to those, we have here in sweden, withdrawals can only be made to a greek bank account in your name. So you do need to actually live there and not just be on vacation. Also a PokerStars account registered to the swedish license can only be used to play in Sweden. If I log on from for instance a danish IP adress and try to register for a tournament, a message pops up telling me "sorry but we do not offer real money games in your location". Which is not exactly true, because people in Denmark can also play on PokerStars, but their account need to be registered under the danish license.

 

[antonis32123]

PokerStars has strict rules , probably you won't be able to play . If you contact support team and they allow you ?? I don't know .

 

[Aaldert92]

Thanks a lot for the responses! It seems to be the overall theme to have to actually move and be a resident in another country to be able to play online.
Anyone have any insight in the live scene in Greece? Could I go there for lets say a month (or 3+) and just play live, can I deposit/withdraw with my Dutch bankaccount?

 

[Aaldert92]

Playing is only allowed in official establishments; players who ignore this rule will face severe punishment, including criminal liability. Anyone who wants to take part in gambling must receive a so-called “personal player card”, and the recipient must be at least 21 years old.

Club Hotel Casino Loutraki. "Loutraki" is the first casino, which appeared in 1928. In 2024, this is one of the largest gambling establishments in the world, located in Thessaloniki.

Is that the case for only live? or also online? And where does one get that personal player card?

 

[luckyfish98]

Hi everyone,

I am wondering if someone has experience with (online-)poker in Greece? I am a Dutch citizen and planning on going abroad for a while to play live/online poker.
(My site of choice would be Pokerstars.)

I have a couple questions I hope someone could help me with:
- Is it possible to play there as a foreign citizen? (I am from the Netherlands, where Pokerstars is banned at the moment)
- If so, do I need to have a permanent residence and be able to proof so? Or could I just go there for a month of 'vacation' and play whithout any problem
- What is the situation with deposit/withdrawal, can I use my Dutch bankaccount/card?
- Do the Greek gambling laws apply for the whole nation? (including Cyprus?)
- And finally what are the things I should be aware of regarding the legal aspects, such as VISA or anything really?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Greeks are among the best members of pokerstars! Very well players and almost unbeatable!

 

[IRINA70]

I was in Greece for three weeks in September - in Rhodes and Karpathos. They were not allowed to play, even in a pre-registered СС freeroll. Upon returning home, access to tournaments was immediately restored.

 

[AzdajaD]

If you want to play live, you have few great casinos in Athens and Thessaloniki...+ one pvt room in Katerini - if you don't know local people Katerini game is not for you...😉
Enjoy your trip to Greece and good luck! 😀❤

 

[BGC]

I believe that for land based my favourite was outside of Thessaloniki, me and the misses usually drops by when we visit family and friends. As people have mentioned avoid the local games if you are new to the scene and enjoy the food!

We found a few other recommendations over at https://www.bestgreekcasinos.com/, there