OPAP results suffer after tax increase

OPAP, Europe’s third-largest betting firm, on Tuesday posted a 36.4 percent drop in second-quarter net profit, hurt by a tax hike on its revenues which Greece introduced as part of additional austerity under its third international bailout.

Earlier this summer Greece retroactively increased taxation on gross gaming revenue that OPAP had generated since the start of the year by 5 percentage points, to 35 percent.

The company included the full impact of the levy for the first six months of the year in the second quarter.

Increased competition from smaller online rivals and several waves of tax hikes which have dampened Greek people’s appetite for gambling have also taken a toll on OPAP’s profit in recent years.

[Reuters]