Greek authorities have shut down a payment service allegedly used by senior state officials to launder money through the country’s legal betting industry. The Hellenic Gaming Commission, working with the Anti-Money Laundering Authority, moved quickly to suspend the service after it was found to be incompatible with Greece’s regulatory framework. Investigators say the loophole allowed large sums of illicit cash to be funneled into betting accounts and then withdrawn as seemingly legitimate gambling winnings.
The probe uncovered a network of around 200 individuals who exploited the system. Cash was handed over to agents operating even in small shops and gas stations, then deposited into betting accounts under players’ names.
From there, the money could be transferred directly to bank accounts, recorded as gambling profits rather than undeclared income. Regulators identified a pattern of frequent, high-value deposits that signaled coordinated laundering activity.
Those under scrutiny include high-ranking public officials, such as senior ministry staff and department directors, some of whom reported winnings that in certain cases approached one million euros. The mechanism proved difficult to detect, since neither the betting companies nor the agents were directly violating any single law. Instead, the scheme relied on exploiting gaps in the oversight framework, effectively turning untraceable cash into clean, taxable income.
