Belgian Gambling Commission creates new working group
The Belgian regulator has established an industry working group to get views on how to tackle unlicensed gambling operators.
Belgium.- A new industry working group convened by the Belgian Gambling Commission will meet for the first time today (September 22) to look at tackling illegal gambling in the country.
The group comprises gambling operators, players, scientists and representatives from treatment providers who will attempt to collaborate on ideas for how to clamp down on illegal activity.
The Commission will outline its own ideas and invite feedback from the group before deciding which proposals to implement, it said.
The Commission’s president, Magali Clavie, who was appointed in April, set up the group to gather a wider range of opinions.
It is particularly interested in opinions on how to better enable players to distinguish between legal and illegal offerings, how to discourage players from gambling with illegal operators and how to improve identification of problem gambling behaviour.
The Commission is also looking into how it can improve and modernise Belgium’s self-exclusion programme, the Excluded Persons Information System (EPIS).
The Commission said: “The ambition is to determine, at the end of this event, some concrete priorities to be implemented in the coming months.
“Multidisciplinary working groups comprising players, operators, representatives of behavioural addictions and debt organisations will then be formed to achieve them.”
Last week, the Commission updated its blacklist of unlicensed online gambling sites, adding GG.bet, Syndicate.casino and Whitlioncasino.com to the list.
Operators that continue to target Belgian players after being blacklisted can face fines of up to €100,000. Criminal proceedings can also be taken against players who can be dealt fines ranging from €26 to €25,000.
The EU recently announced that it will investigate Ladbrokes’ virtual betting concession in Belgium to decide whether it received unfair state subsidies.
