Belgium to slash weekly deposit limit for gambling
Belgium’s Council of Ministers has approved a draft law that would cut the weekly deposit limit to €200.
Belgium.- It looks like Belgium is set to more than halve the country’s current weekly deposit limit for gambling from €500 to €200.
The Council of Ministers has approved a proposal made by the minister for justice Vincent Van Quickenborne to amend Belgium’s Royal Decree on Games of Chance and the Protection of Players (1999).
It had previously considered a proposal to keep the limit at €500 but make it a “global” limit, similar to the system in Germany, rather than a limit for individual operators. However, under Van Quickenborne’s proposal the limit would continue to work on a per-operator basis.
The limit, which was introduced in April last year, would be lowered to €200 a week with each operator “to strengthen protection of the player”.
The proposed amendment would also give the Belgian Gaming Commission the power to ask the National Bank of Belgium if a player is behind on debt payments. The draft law now needs the approval of the national Data Protection Authority before it can be sent to the Council of State for a vote.
The Council of Ministers has also approved a proposal to add betting shops to Belgium’s national exclusion register, EPIS. This proposal was also forward by Van Quickenborne.
Launched in 2004, EPIS currently applies to land-based casinos and slot arcades, preventing players who have self-excluded or have been added to the list from entering the venues.
The Council of Ministers described the register as “undoubtedly a very effective instrument in the fight against gambling addiction”.
Again, the draft proposal will require approval from the Data Protection Authority and the Council of State.
Last month, the Belgian Gaming Commission added four online casino platforms to its list of unlicensed websites. In 2020, the regulator handed out 23 sanctions and €59,958 in fines.
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