Legislative Proposal Reviewing the Gambling Law lifted out of Programme Law

The 'legislative proposal reviewing the gambling law' has been lifted out of the Programme Law, which was voted upon in the Chamber and the Senate just before Christmas. This is an unusual development since it is common practice that the Parliament usually simply ‘rubber stamps’ the Programme Law without debate.

The Government’s decision to pull back its proposal is mainly due to the severe criticism from the Parliament regarding the inclusion of a highly political and sensitive proposal -such as online gaming- in the Programme Law. The National Lottery has been lobbying against the law and seems to have weakened the Government internally since it gave in to demands from the Parliament to stop the process.

The European Lotteries Association was involved in the Belgian national lobby. Due to the precedent role Belgium could have, they consider this to be their top priority national lobby. The intensive lobby from the National Lotteries and the absence of lobbyists from private online gaming companies has led to an extraordinary legal turning of the tide in favour of the National Lottery.

The Justice Committee of the Belgian Lower Chamber (Commission Justice) is currently working on the text of the draft gambling law and a possibly amended proposal should be submitted to the full Parliament in January. The proposed legislation contains a few provisions on online gambling (Section 1er bis and article 33 bis).

The new legislation puts in place a certification system (“certificate de fiabilité”) to allow online gambling operators to provide their services. A certificate will be granted by the Belgian Gambling Commission to an individual or a company from the EU. The certificate (or licence) will be granted when the operator meets qualitative requirements including: security of payments, solvability of the operator, and rules of gambling. The certificate will require an annual payment which will be fixed by the Council of Ministers. The Belgian Gambling Commission will also have the power to withdraw the certificate if the qualitative requirements are no longer met.

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