BELGIUM Trends and Developments Contributed by: Pieter Paepe and Christoph de Preter, EDSON
All advertising should mention the minimum age for participation and contain a prevention message. The advertising rules apply to all games of chance and betting offered by Belgian licence holders, both land- based and online. The adoption of the Royal Decree has been criticised, as it has not been preceded by a wider discussion within the Belgian government. The government has also suggested that no specific studies have been conducted in relation to the strict advertising restrictions. As was reported in the Bel- gian press, it appears that the National Lottery, which enjoys a monopoly when it comes to lotteries, has lob- bied for stricter advertising rules for games of chance and betting. In return for its monopoly, the National Lottery pays a monopoly interest to the government. When the Belgian government called for a higher monopoly interest, the National Lottery insisted that stricter advertising rules for games of chance should be imposed in return, as this would prevent a “further erosion” of its lottery monopoly. Many licence holders have challenged this Royal Decree before the Belgian courts. Several annulment cases are pending before the Belgian Council of State. Another case is pending before the Belgian Constitu- tional Court, where a decision is expected in late 2025 or early 2026. These cases may ultimately lead to the annulment of the strict advertising rules. De-Risking of Licensed Gaming Operators by Belgian Banks To play their role as an instrument in Belgium’s chan- nelling policy, licensed gaming operators need access to essential banking services. The reality, however, is that it is increasingly cumbersome – not to say impos- sible – for licensed gaming operators to have a bank account with a Belgian bank, to obtain financing for new investments, to obtain guarantee letters, etc. Licensed gaming operators are increasingly shown the door by Belgian banks – a practice referred to as “de-risking”. Some banks justify this path as the logical conse- quence of legitimate risk management under appli- cable AML legislation. In a noteworthy opinion of 5 January 2022 on de-risking, the European Banking Authority (EBA) recalls that de-risking of entire catego-
ries of customers – without due consideration of indi- vidual customers’ risk profiles – can be unwarranted and a sign of ineffective risk management in the fight against money laundering and financing of terrorism. The National Bank of Belgium (NBB) has followed suit. On 1 February 2022, the NBB published a circular detailing the “prudential expectations in relation to de-risking”. The NBB clearly states that it is neither appropriate nor consistent with legal and regulatory AML requirements for a financial institution’s customer acceptance policy to exclude by rule all business rela- tionships with potential or existing clients on the basis of general criteria, such as the fact that these clients belong to a “particular industry”. There are several procedures pending before Belgian courts where it is argued that banks are infringing AML legislation by systematically excluding, to the greatest extent possi- ble, companies operating within the gambling sector. But there is more. Another trend is that banks also rely on ESG considerations to terminate agreements with licensed gaming operators or to refuse to deal with them. One major Belgian bank, for instance, has set a policy whereby all companies deriving a cer- tain percentage of their total revenues from owner- ship or operation of gambling-related activities are “excluded” from all investment products, loans and other non-investment-related activities. If all banks adopt the same or similar policies, access to (essen- tial) banking services will become virtually impossible for licensed operators and the question arises whether they can still play their instrumental role – as desired by the legislature – in Belgium’s channelling policy. Stricter Enforcement Since the regulation of online games of chance in 2011, the Belgian Gaming Commission has maintained a blacklist of websites offering games of chance and betting services without the required licence. Most Belgian ISPs block access to these blacklisted sites. In 2024, the Gaming Act was amended to formally authorise this blacklisting and blocking mechanism. Historically, unlicensed operators were rarely fined. However, this has changed recently. The Gaming Commission has begun initiating sanction proceed- ings and imposing fines, which can reach several hundred thousand euros. Some companies are now
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