to EU law, notably the Article 43 EC - freedom of establishment and Article 56 EC - the free movement of (cross-border) services.
Crucially, online licences are reserved only for those who also operate games of chance in the real world and already hold at least one of three categories of land-based Belgian licence; category ‘A’ casino, category ‘B’ poker, or category ‘F1’ betting service.
Peter Naessens, Head of Unit, Regulatory Advice at the Belgian Gaming Commission speaking recently at the European Gambling Conference said in regards to this restriction that, “In Belgium, every day we are more convinced that there must be a structural relation between online and land-based [operators]. What the EU can learn from Belgium is that you have to build on good practices that are already there in the land- based models to organize the online gambling because online gambling is more dangerous and more difficult to regulate”.
Lawmakers continue to argue that the hurdle has been put in place to combat undesirable affects: underage gambling, fraud and other crimes. Further, land-based operators have
already proved they can comply with the rules.
Additionally, statute placed a limitation on licences, with the possibility of more limitations to come (currently a maximum of 180 class ‘II’ gambling establishment automated gaming room licences are available). Belgium, therefore, may bear the brunt of EU infringement proceedings when the local licensing regime opens after the summer.
A further barrier to entry is that servers must be permanently established in Belgian territory – a requirement lawmakers argue is fundamental for the regulator to conduct thorough supervision of an operator’s business activities.
Therefore, it is not surprising that some offshore operators are signing B2B agreements
land-Based
opeRatoRs have alReady pRoved
they can comply with the Rules.
with locally licensed operators with the understanding that those operators will then obtain an online licence later this year. Most recently, PokerStars and Partouche Poker have joined forces to test their online poker software (
PokerStars.be) under temporary testing provisional licence, with approval from the Gaming Commission. These ‘test websites’ are only open to active Belgian land-based operators.
Isle of Man-based PokerStars, also wasted no time in announcing in a press release in October, a partnership with Circus Groupe to host online poker. It is unclear whether the market would be ‘ring-fenced’, as is done in France and Italy, so that Belgian players can only play against other Belgian nationals, potentially unviable due to the small size of the market.
On top of already holding a Class ‘A’ casino licence, Circus Groupe may have been chosen since it already has expertise in organising large land-based poker tournaments. A know- how in which it is hoped may be able to drive those players online to the
PokerStars.be site when it is operational later this year. There are currently nine casinos Class ‘A’ licences, the
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