BELGIUM Law and Practice Contributed by: Pieter Paepe and Christoph de Preter, EDSON
has a LAN that is connected to the LAN of the Gaming Commission. The licensing system for betting distinguishes between the organisation of betting (F1 licence) and the acceptance of bets (F2 licence). Class IV gam- ing establishments are places exclusively permitted to accept bets on behalf of an F1 licence holder. It is prohibited to accept bets outside a class IV gaming establishment. There are, however, a limited number of exceptions to this prohibition. A class IV gaming establishment can be fixed or mobile. A fixed class IV gaming establishment is a clearly demarcated permanent establishment where bets are offered. A mobile class IV gaming estab- lishment is a temporary establishment – also clearly demarcated – where bets are offered during and at an event, a sports game or a sports competition. There must be a distance of 1,000 metres between each betting office. F2 licences may also be granted to newspaper shops, which can offer bets as an ancil- lary activity. Since 1 January 2011, the Gaming Act has provided a legal framework for offering online games of chance and betting in Belgium. Prior to that date, such online activities were not explicitly regulated. The Belgian legislature has established a closed licensing system. Operators wishing to offer online games of chance or betting must obtain an online licence, specifically, a licence A+ for online casinos, a licence B+ for online gaming arcades, or a licence F1+ for online betting. The number of available licences is limited to nine A+ licences, 180 B+ licences, and 30 F1+ licences. Furthermore, each online licence requires a manda- tory physical connection to Belgian territory. Only operators already licensed to operate in the physical domain (holding a principal A, B, or F1 licence) are eligible to obtain the corresponding A+, B+, or F1+ online licence. In this way, the Gaming Act establishes 6. Online Gambling 6.1 B2C Licences
a parallel structure between offline and online licens- ing regimes. 6.2 B2B Licences (Suppliers, Software, Etc) B2B operators are required to hold an E licence. This licensing requirement applies to a wide range of activi- ties, including the sale, rental, supply, making availa- ble, import, export, manufacture, maintenance, repair and equipping of games of chance. The Gaming Act does not differentiate between land-based games of chance and online games of chance. Consequently, any undertaking that provides such services to an A+, B+ or F1+ licence holder must obtain an E licence. It is prohibited for a natural or legal person to hold an A, A+, B, B+, C, D, F1, F1+, F1P or F2 licence and an E licence at the same time – either directly or indi- rectly, or through another natural or legal person. An infringement of this prohibition can give rise to crimi- The Gaming Act does not specifically regulate affili- ates but certain activities of affiliates – eg, marketing – fall within the scope of application of the Gaming Act. Pursuant to Article 4, Section 2 of the Gaming Act, for example, it is prohibited for anyone (including affiliates) to: • facilitate the operation of unlicensed games of chance; • advertise for unlicensed games of chance; or • recruit players for unlicensed games of chance. 6.4 White Labels The Gaming Commission publishes a list of all licence holders (except D and F1P licence holders) on its web- site. All “licensed” websites can be found on the Gam- nal sanctions. 6.3 Affiliates Advertising for online games of chance has become heavily restricted (see 9.3 Key Legal, Regulatory and Licensing Provisions ). The blacklisting mechanism was given an explicit legal basis with the Act of 7 May 2024. The Gaming Com- mission is now explicitly required to maintain a list ing Commission’s website. 6.5 Technical Measures
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