Belgium to regulate advertising on iGaming
Belgian government is set to further control advertising on online gaming platforms.
Belgium.- The Congress of Belgium has passed a bill regulating the advertising market related to online gaming businesses. The national government has reviewed the bill and allegedly sent it to the European Commission in order to get the final approval to implement the new legislation restricting iGaming publicity.
Online casino industry, sports betting operations and the affiliate sectors would be affected by the potential legislation as it could limit the advertising strategies in regards of those industries at national level. The proposal was recently introduced by the Council of Ministers of Belgium and sent to the European Commission this week.
Under the new legislation, if approved by the European Commission, online gaming advertising would ban publicity on “bonuses except on licensed operators’ websites.” Furthermore, the companies would only be able to send publicity to emails or telephones of current clients. The rest of the advertising strategies would be limited to licensed companies’ platforms.
Last year, the Belgian Council of Ministers favoured Minister of Justice Koen Geens’ proposal to set restrictions on gambling promotion, mainly on broadcast media. Since then, industry’s ads are banned from being broadcasted before 8pm, from any live sporting events and even bars any gambling promotion messages from sports equipment and kits.
