Greece says to further suspend gaming tax

ATHENS, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Greece said on Monday it will extend the suspension of a new tax on gaming winnings and start talks on the measure, which had met strong opposition from sales agents of the country's betting monopoly OPAP (OPAr.AT).

The law, which slaps a 10 percent tax on net winnings from OPAP's games, was passed in July by the country's previous conservative government and was due to go into effect on Oct. 21 after a first suspension of one month.

But the new socialist government, which won an Oct. 4 snap election, said it will put off the measure once again.

"The finance minister will as soon as possible submit to Parliament an amendment to suspend the problematic clauses on the taxation of gaming winnings," the Finance Ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said it would soon begin consultations to seek a rational and fair solution on gaming taxation, but did not say whether it would reintroduce a tax-free threshold for lottery winnings, which OPAP agents are asking for.

The taxation measure, which had been agreed in a bid to help contain Greece's ballooning budget deficit, led to sharp losses in the company's shares. Sales agents were concerned it would discourage punters from reinvesting their profit, hurting sales.

The law also scrapped tax-free winnings from lotteries and fixed-odds sports betting games.

Shares in OPAP were trading up 0.1 percent at 1400 GMT, versus a loss of 1.4 percent for the Athens bourse's general index .ATG. (Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by Ingrid Melander and David Holmes)