The Rational Group, PokerStars’ holding company, has opted to comply with Greek gaming laws to move players in the country to .GR websites and introduce the new daily ‘player withholding tax’ on winnings.
According to Pokerfuse, the new tax laws state that winnings of €100 ($135) or more are to be taxed at 15% and are automatically withheld at the end of the day. Winnings over €500 incur a higher tax rate of 20%.
Money received through various promotional bonuses and other prizes is thought to be exempt from the law.
The new tax has proved controversial as it makes it impossible for companies to net out losses from winnings over time.
As a result of the compliance, PokerStars.GR and FullTiltPoker.GR are now operating legally in the country through a partnership with Diamond Link.
Although Greek regulators are yet to issue any official licenses under the new national gaming laws, PokerStars is one of 24 companies to hold an interim licence.
The .GR version on PokerStars shares the same international player pool as its other international domains, but certain tournaments with larger prize pools have been hidden on the Greek website.
A new ‘Hide Geographically Restricted Tournaments’ feature will turn these tournaments back on, but players in Greece will be unable to register for them.
In addition, PokerStars confimed it is negotiations with the Hellenic Gaming Commission to have one of its websites deleted from the regulators gaming blacklist.
The pokerstarsblog.com domain was added to the list of over 400 websites in August of this year.
