Greece’s Hellenic Gaming Commission is hiring 40 people for its Gaming Controllers’ Corps as the country steps up its fight against illegal gambling. The new staff will back up the regulator’s beefed-up inspection and investigation work under the gambling reforms passed in June, and applications stay open until Nov. 6.
None of the roles are open to the general public, since the positions will be filled through secondments from elsewhere in the public sector. The HGC wants 25 university-educated administrative and economics staff, three legal specialists, five university-level IT specialists, five accounting and administrative staff, and two more IT specialists, and it’s specifically after people who know gambling supervision, technology, and financial controls.
June’s legislation gave the Gaming Controllers’ Corps a lot more muscle, including the status of special investigative officers when looking into gambling-related criminal offences. It also raised the HGC’s permanent headcount from 80 to 110 positions, 40 of them specialist scientific roles, so the regulator has more people to chase down the operators and individuals running illegal gambling networks.
Keeping a blacklist of unlicensed websites and asking for them to be blocked is no longer the limit of what the HGC can do. Its enforcement work now covers on-site inspections, digital investigations, administrative penalties, and joint work with police, prosecutors, and other authorities, and the June reforms gave it stronger powers to track down accounts and websites pushing illegal gambling content and get that content taken down.
Technology is playing a bigger part, too. National Economy and Finance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis said earlier this month that the HGC is building digital tools and artificial intelligence to map illegal gambling networks, spot websites faster, and work out which channels are being used to promote them. Website blocking will keep running through the country’s telecommunications regulator and internet service providers.
Around €1.8 billion was wagered on Greece’s illegal gambling market in 2025, according to Pierrakakis, with roughly 900,000 people taking part. Earlier government estimates based on 2024 research had put illegal gambling at €1.67 billion and the lost state revenue at hundreds of millions of euros a year. The government has been zeroing in on online promotion, since illegal operators can simply switch domains and keep reaching customers through social media, influencers, and streamers.
Complaints against 18 influencers suspected of promoting illegal gambling are already with investigators at the preliminary stage, all filed by the HGC. The June law brought in direct administrative penalties for illegal online gambling promotion, with fines of up to €50,000 per violation, and Pierrakakis has said the Finance and Justice ministries are working on tighter coordination between regulators, police, and prosecutors whenever cases involve organised illegal gambling.
Running illegal games of chance now carries at least 10 years in prison and fines of €50,000 to €700,000. Commercial-scale operations, offences involving minors, and businesses that reopen after being sealed face fines of €100,000 to €800,000 on top of that 10-year minimum, and authorities can shut premises used for illegal gambling for up to a year.
Police showed how big the land-based side of the problem is on Oct. 15, raiding an alleged illegal gambling network operating in Thessaloniki and Kavala and arresting 20 people. The group is accused of running illegal games through internet cafés since at least 2013, using software that allegedly let the organisers rig results and pick which players won, and authorities put its illegal proceeds at more than €1 million.
Once applications close on Nov. 6, the successful candidates will join the HGC on secondment. That gives the regulator more investigators, lawyers, accountants, and IT specialists as it starts putting the June law’s new investigative powers to use against illegal gambling both online and on the ground.