The Greeks stop gambling... on sports, at least

Outlook

James Moore
Thursday 09 July 2015 01:28 BST
Comments

GVC, the online gambling firm, says the Greeks have stopped gambling. Well, what the company actually says is that it has “registered a softening in player activity in that territory”.

Which is corporate-speak for much the same thing and shouldn’t come as any great surprise. When you’re limited to withdrawing €60 (£43) a day, with the potential of worse to come, the last thing you’re likely to do with the money is put it on a football match. Or on one of the other wildly popular games GVC offers through a partner in that benighted county.

No, far better to stash it under the bed until you really need it. Which might be very soon.

But the Greeks’ new-found reluctance to gamble might also be because they have already taken a punt on some of the biggest bets they’re ever likely to place with the election of Syriza and the decision by a majority of them to follow its advice and reject the bail-out terms offered by its creditors on the advice of the party.

It still remains to be seen whether those bets will pay off, but the omens do not look good. So no wonder they’ve decided to heed those obnoxious UK ads about pausing to take a breath after a bad bet.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in