infoRmation panel ADULT POPULATION: .............................8 million HOME BROADBAND: .........................78 per cent
CURRENT LEGISLATION: ..................................... New Belgian Gambling Legislation amending the Belgium Gaming Act of 7 May 1999
REMOTE GAMING PERMITTED: ............................. Casinos, sports betting, poker, horse betting, fixed odds betting. Lotteries are excluded.
ONLINE GAMING TAX: ......................................... 15 per cent on GGR, except for Wallonia that is proposing a 11 per cent on GGR
SIZE OF MARKET: ................................................ Depending on the number of land-based licences which have a maximum limit
LICENCES: .......................................................... Class ‘A+’ licence (casino) will cost ¤250,000. Class ‘B+’ (poker) will cost ¤75,000 and class ‘F+’ (betting service) will cost ¤75,000.
TOTAL GAMBLING TURNOVER: ......¤3.3bn (2009) TOTAL ONLINE GGR:........................¤46m (2008)
REGULATORY BODY: ............................................ Belgium Gaming Commission Tel: ........................................+(32) 2 504 00 40 Email: ................................
ksc-cjh@just.fgov.be Website:
........www.gamingcommission.fgov.be
(betting service) will cost €75,000. Ancillary fees are excluded.
• Gambling servers must be permanently based on Belgium territory.
• The Belgium Gaming Commission is to draft a ‘blacklist’ and hand it over to financial institutions that will have an obligation to prohibit the acceptance of gambling payments from operators on the list. Criminal sanctions will apply for failure to comply with these provisions.
• A similar ‘blacklist’ will be handed to Internet Service Providers (ISP) who will have the obligation to make illegal content inaccessible. The Belgian Gaming regulator will then be given powers to enforce payment and internet blocking provisions to prevent illegal operators targeting Belgium citizens. Criminal sanctions will apply for failure to comply with these provisions.
• An illegal advertising ban on unlicensed operators, as well as online affiliates.
• Criminal and administrative sanctions for anyone facilitating the operation of gambling, including advertisers.
• Criminal and administrative sanctions for players found to be participating in illegal games of chance.
comment
Clive Hawkswood, Chief Executive of Remote Gambling Association. chawkswood@rga.e
u.com
“Bearing in mind that Belgium plays host to the European Commission and the European Parliament it ironic to say the least that its new gambling laws are probably the least compliant with EU law of any of the new and emerging regimes. An obvious example of this is the requirement to hold a licence for a bricks and mortar gambling operation before being able to apply for an online licence. Given that the probity checks and regulatory standards will be almost identical this is a blatant attempt to give Belgian domestic operators at least a head start in the new online gambling market and, of course, why should a purely online operator have to move into the land-based industry solely to conduct the business it is really there for. Safe to say there are, and will be, numerous legal challenges to the new Belgian regime. Unfortunately, these are always very time consuming and by the time they are resolved the damage may well have been done. The Belgian regulators have also not covered themselves in glory by writing to their counterparts in some other jurisdictions to threaten them corporately and personally with legal action if they do not act to stop their licensees taking bets from Belgium. It hardly sounds like a template for success. As for the market, it is relatively well developed, but even if with a relatively wealthy population the market is still comparatively small and any products that require liquidity will find life hard unless the Belgian authorities agree to some cross border co-mingling of markets. At the moment that seems like a long shot.”
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