BELGIUM Law and Practice Contributed by: Pieter Paepe and Christoph de Preter, EDSON
• the identification and verification of players and financial beneficiaries; • monitoring suspicious transactions; and • other vigilance obligations in co-operation with the Belgian Financial Intelligence Processing Unit, the police and the Public Prosecutor’s Office. The gaming operator is required to identify clients who either place bets or withdraw winnings of EUR2,000 or more. The AML Law also imposes limits on the use of cash money – that is, no gift or payment in cash can be made or accepted when the amount exceeds EUR3,000 (or the equivalent amount in another cur- rency). A Royal Decree of 30 January 2019 exempts C licence holders from the application of the AML Law. There is no specific agency responsible for gaming advertising. Instead, the Gaming Commission moni- tors compliance with the Gaming Act and its imple- mentation of Royal Decrees, including the advertising restrictions that can be found therein. 9.2 Definition of Advertising The Gaming Act broadly defines “advertising” as “any form of communication intended, directly or indirectly, to promote or encourage games of chance, regard- less of the location, communication methods used, or techniques employed. [...] [t]he display of a brand name or logo, or both, is also considered advertising”. Similarly, the Royal Decree of 27 February 2023, which establishes the advertising conditions for games of chance, offers a comparable definition. 9.3 Key Legal, Regulatory and Licensing Provisions Advertising land-based and online games of chance and betting is prohibited if it is known that those games of chance or gaming establishments are not authorised (not licensed) under the Gaming Act. Vio- lating this prohibition may result in criminal sanctions. For licensed games of chance, both land-based and online, the Gaming Act and Royal Decree of 27 Febru- 9. Advertising 9.1 Regulatory/Supervisory Agency
ary 2023 state that all advertising is in principle pro- hibited, except when expressly authorised. Permitted advertising activities include: • B2B advertising; • incidental advertising in connection with the cover- age of sports competitions and events; • sports sponsorships; • broadcasting of sports sponsorships for certain events; • the display of brand names and logos on the façades of licensed gaming establishments; • advertising within gaming establishments such as casinos and betting shops; • product placement in television or radio pro- grammes, or in other audiovisual media produced abroad; • advertising on search engine results pages; • advertising on the operator’s own website; and • advertising on the operator’s official social media accounts. Each of these exceptions is subject to strict additional conditions. 9.4 Restrictions on Advertising Licence holders may broadcast sports sponsorship messages using their brand name and/or logo for international and European sports competitions but not Belgian sports competitions. Any broadcast of sports sponsorship messages must adhere to the following conditions: • the duration of each sports sponsorship message may not exceed five seconds; • no more than two sports sponsorship messages may be broadcast per hour; and • the sports sponsorship message must air during the fifteen-minute period before and the fifteen- minute period after the live coverage of the sports competition, specifically from the actual start to the actual end of the event. Online licence holders can only advertise on their own website and their own social media accounts, pro- vided that:
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