Belgian Ministers are set to discuss this week stricter regulations in relation to the provision of online gambling services in the country and the protection of young and vulnerable members of the population, local news outlet De Tijd reports.
Under the nation’s current gambling law, customers need to be aged 18 or over in order to be able participate in online sports betting activities. Regulated online casinos are only allowed to admit Belgians aged 21 or over.
Customers must first register with online gambling websites in order to be able to place bets or play casino games. However, concerns have been voiced that minors often manage to open accounts by providing false information.
Belgium’s Ministers of Justice, Interior, and Digital Agenda are expected to discuss this week how the registration process could be changed and improved so that existing loopholes are closed completely and underage members of the population are prevented from engaging in gambling activities.
The potential introduction of stricter registration requirements comes as part of the Belgian government’s efforts to curb the growing exposure of minors and other vulnerable people to gambling.
Last summer, the nation’s Christian Democratic and Flemish (Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams) party tabled a bill that called for raising the minimum age for online gambling from 18 to 21 for all regulated services. As mentioned above, customers aged 18 or over can currently place bets and purchase lottery products online.
Crackdown on Gambling Advertising
Belgium regulated its gambling market in 1999, when the country’s Betting and Gaming Act took effect. Amendments to the law were introduced in the early 2010s to better match the international gambling landscape and the growing demand for the regulation of iGaming. However, Belgian Ministers have called over the past several years for additional changes to the existing gambling regulations to be rolled out, ones that would restrict certain aspects in the provision of gambling services to local customers.
Last fall, the Belgian Council of Minsters approved a proposal by Minister of Justice Koen Geens for the creation of a system of curbs aiming to restrict the advertising of gambling across local broadcast media.
The new advertising rules are expected to take effect by the end of the year, likely in Q3, and would limit significantly operators in their efforts to promote their services to Belgian bettors. Under the new regulations, gambling advertising before, during, and shortly after sports events would be banned from being featured across media outlets.
In addition, an 8 pm watershed is also planned to be introduced. Each regulated operator would be allowed to feature a limited number of ads across local media under the newly proposed regulatory changes. The new regime would also effectively destroy Belgium’s iGaming affiliate sector, as operators would only be allowed to advertise on their own websites or via email.
