According to Greece’s Finance Ministry, the online gambling market in the country is worth an estimated €2 billion. It seems that because Greeks don’t spend much time working – the few that do work – they have plenty of time for leisure activities, such as gambling.

George Christodoulakis (you’d think people as lazy as the Greeks would have easier names to pronounce), a senior official in the Finance Ministry, told the Agence France Presse that “the propensity for gaming in Greece is among the highest in Europe and the world.” He said that “has to do with our temperament and culture,” referring to lazy people who would rather try to make money playing a casino game than earn it with a hard day’s work.

With that in mind, Christodoulakis said that the only thing the government needs to do is set the rules for online gambling, which is currently illegal though the law is not really enforced. As a result, the Greek government is considering establishing a Gaming Commission to regulate and tax the online gambling industry.

Of course, being taxed by the government for something they are currently doing tax-free may cause more rioting in Greece, assuming that there are Greeks who have enough motivation to riot and are not already doing so. Then again, I’m not sure what the communist party’s opinion is of gambling, so I can’t be certain how those rioters would react.

Christodoulakis estimates that approximately €4 billion is spent on illegal gambling, with half of that being spent online. That makes it tempting for the government to regulate the industry, especially considering the Greek government is big on controlling industries. Once that starts affecting the wallet of the Greeks, though, all bets are off.

When they’re not sitting around doing nothing while collecting government pensions or rioting and burning down cars and looting stores because of anger at losing those pensions, Greeks love to gamble online. At least, that’s what the government is counting on, because they have drafted new online gambling legislation that would regulate the industry within their borders.

The Greek government, in an attempt to add revenue to a nation being crippled by debt and a workforce that isn’t used to actually working for their money, has introduced legislation that would legalize online gambling in the country but require offshore online casinos, sports books and poker rooms to acquire licenses from the Greek government. In addition, the online gambling companies would have to set up servers in Greece, process their financial transactions within the country and operate using a Greek domain name.

All of those moves are intended to bring money that Greeks are currently spending on foreign operators back into the economy. It’s a small fix, but every little thing counts when you’re facing total economic collapse, so I wouldn’t expect the legislation to get a lot of opposition within the Greek government.

The online gambling legislation would also allow the Greek government to block the ISP of any foreign online gambling website that did not obtain a license and meet their other requirements. In addition, it would allow the government to stop and prosecute any illegal online gambling transactions involving Greek citizens.

The online gambling legislation is scheduled for debate this month and if passed, has a target date of May 2011 for full implementation.