Belgium — Online Gambling Regulation

Key facts

• Verified

  Belgian law bans games of chance except where explicitly permitted: article 4 §1 of the Gambling Act of 7 May 1999 forbids anyone to operate a game of chance or gaming establishment without a prior licence from the Gaming Commission, and the Commission says the government chose a channelling policy with licences because an absolute ban in the past had led to a proliferation of illegal games.

  Gaming Commission (Kansspelcommissie), Gaming Commission (Kansspelcommissie)

• Verified

  The Gambling Act defines a game of chance as any game in which a stake of any kind is put in and results in the loss of that stake by at least one player, or a gain of any kind for at least one player or organiser, with chance an even incidental element (article 2, 1°); sport is not a game of chance (article 3), and the Act does not apply to lotteries under the Act of 31 December 1851 or to the public lotteries of the National Lottery (article 3bis).

  Gaming Commission (Kansspelcommissie), Gaming Commission (Kansspelcommissie)

• Verified

  The Gaming Commission was established by the Gambling Act of 7 May 1999 and is Belgium’s official gambling regulator: it advises Government and Parliament, grants the licences needed to operate games of chance and betting, monitors compliance and can impose warnings, suspension or revocation of licences and administrative fines; it carries out its missions independently (article 10 §6) and is chaired by a magistrate, Magali Clavie since 2020.

  Gaming Commission (Kansspelcommissie), Gaming Commission (Kansspelcommissie), Gaming Commission (Kansspelcommissie)

• Verified

  Belgium is transferring the Gaming Commission and gambling competence from the Minister of Justice to the Minister of Economy and the FPS Economy: the Council of Ministers approved a preliminary draft law on 17 October 2025 and in second reading on 19 December 2025, approved a draft royal decree amending other royal decrees on 30 April 2026 (sent to the Council of State for advice) and in second reading on 25 September 2026, and its communiqué of 18 September 2026 refers to the transfer of competence to the Minister of Economy as the reason the signing minister of a 2026 gambling bill changed.

  Federal Government of Belgium (news.belgium.be), Federal Government of Belgium (news.belgium.be), Federal Government of Belgium (news.belgium.be), Federal Government of Belgium (news.belgium.be), Federal Government of Belgium (news.belgium.be)

• Verified

  Article 25 of the Act sets the licence classes: A (casino, renewable 15-year periods), B (gaming arcade, 9 years), C (licensed premises or café, 5 years), D (staff), E (suppliers and maintenance, 10 years), F1 (betting operator, 9 years), F2 (acceptance of bets for an F1 holder, 3 years) and F1P (horse-race betting), plus supplementary licences A+, B+ and F1+ for games through information-society instruments.

  Gaming Commission (Kansspelcommissie), Gaming Commission (Kansspelcommissie)

• Verified

  Online gambling needs a supplementary licence: under article 43/8 the Commission can grant a holder of an A, B or F1 licence at most one supplementary licence (A+, B+ or F1+), only for games of the same nature as those offered in the real world; its validity is tied to the underlying licence, and the licensing conditions must at least require that the servers managing the data and the website sit in a permanent establishment on Belgian territory.

  Gaming Commission (Kansspelcommissie), Gaming Commission (Kansspelcommissie)

• Verified

  Article 29 caps class I casinos at nine, to be located in Blankenberge, Chaudfontaine, Dinant, Knokke-Heist, Middelkerke, Namur, Ostend, Spa and one of the 19 Brussels municipalities; the Commission states that all nine licences have been granted (four in Flanders, four in Wallonia, one in Brussels), so no new A licence application is possible.

  Gaming Commission (Kansspelcommissie), Gaming Commission (Kansspelcommissie)

• Verified

  Every form of gambling, including online, is closed to people under 21: article 54 §1 bars under-21s from the gaming rooms of class I, II and IV establishments, from playing in class III premises, from bets accepted outside class IV establishments and from gambling through information-society instruments; the Act of 18 February 2024 entered into force on 1 September 2024, and the Commission says you can only take part in games of chance or betting from the age of 21.

  Gaming Commission (Kansspelcommissie), Gaming Commission (Kansspelcommissie), Gaming Commission (Kansspelcommissie)

• Verified

  Bonuses and advertising are restricted by law: article 60 forbids licence holders to offer free participation in games, gaming credit and any advantage meant to influence play or to recruit or retain players, and article 61 forbids advertising for games of chance except where the King expressly allows it, with brand name or logo counting as advertising; the Commission lists the bonus ban, a principled advertising ban and a ban on cumulating online licences on one website among the measures that took effect on 1 September 2024.

  Gaming Commission (Kansspelcommissie), Gaming Commission (Kansspelcommissie), Gaming Commission (Kansspelcommissie)

• Verified

  Online players can pay at most EUR 200 per week into each gambling website’s account (the limit applies to money transferred in, not to bets), a lower personal limit can always be requested, and only people not registered as defaulters with the National Bank’s credit office can ask for the limit to be lifted; payment by credit card is forbidden for games operated through information-society instruments (article 58).

  Gaming Commission (Kansspelcommissie), Gaming Commission (Kansspelcommissie), Gaming Commission (Kansspelcommissie)

• Verified

  The Commission has run the Excluded Persons Information System (EPIS) since 2004: players can place themselves in it, an interested third party or a court decision can lead to an exclusion, and an exclusion blocks casinos, gaming arcades and betting, online and offline; a voluntary exclusion can be lifted at any time on request but access only returns after a waiting period of three months.

  Gaming Commission (Kansspelcommissie), Gaming Commission (Kansspelcommissie), Gaming Commission (Kansspelcommissie)

• Verified

  Gambling taxation is regional: the Flemish Government describes the tax on games and bets as an “oneigenlijke gewestbelasting” allocated to the region where the games take place and the bets are placed, and states that the rate on online betting is currently 11% in the Flemish, Walloon and Brussels-Capital Regions, lower than the rate on offline betting in the Flemish and Brussels Regions; which region may levy the tax depends on where the server is located.

  Flemish Government (via Belga Share), Flemish Parliament

• Verified

  On 17 July 2026 the Flemish Government approved a note to the inter-governmental Consultation Committee (Overlegcomité), proposed by Vice Minister-President Ben Weyts, asking for agreement on a simultaneous adjustment by the three regions of the rate of the tax on online bets; it wants to harmonise the rate structure and raise gambling taxes, with the tax rise conditional on the other regions agreeing, and in its opinion on the 2026 budget the Court of Audit noted there was still no decree basis for adjusting the rates because talks with the other regions were ongoing.

  Flemish Government (via Belga Share), Flemish Parliament (Court of Audit opinion)

• Verified

  Almost 500,000 active player accounts existed on licensed betting websites in June 2026, 86% of betting gross gaming revenue came from sports betting (three-quarters of it football), Belgium had 25 licensed sports betting websites, and during Euro 2024 109,029 player accounts were created and 31,481 new players registered.

  Gaming Commission (Kansspelcommissie)

• Verified

  Unlicensed sites are illegal and are blacklisted: under article 43/8 §4 the Commission keeps a list of the URLs of websites it finds offering games of chance in Belgium without a licence, publishes the updated list in the Official Gazette and passes the URLs to internet service providers so that they block access as soon as possible, and its public list shows decisions dated as recently as 28 September 2026.

  Gaming Commission (Kansspelcommissie), Belgian Official Gazette (copy on etaamb.openjustice.be), Gaming Commission (Kansspelcommissie)

• Verified

  Criminal fines under the Gambling Act were reset by the Law of 7 May 2024, published in the Official Gazette on 22 May 2024: article 63 now provides a fine of EUR 26 to EUR 120,000 (replacing a prison term of six months to five years and a fine of 100 to 100,000 francs) for breaches including operating without a licence (article 4 §1) and the credit rules (article 58), and article 64 provides EUR 26 to EUR 72,000 for breaches including knowingly taking part in, advertising or recruiting for an unlicensed game (article 4 §2), the bonus ban (article 60) and the advertising ban (article 61); both ranges are before the legal surcharge, and article 65 allows them to be doubled for repeat offences within five years or offences involving a person under 21.

  Belgian Official Gazette (copy on etaamb.openjustice.be), Gaming Commission (Kansspelcommissie), Gaming Commission (Kansspelcommissie)