Belgium’s Gambling Commission (BGC) has said the country’s online gambling market is starting to “stabilise”, despite not being able to produce a full financial report for 2024.
The regulator’s 2024 report did not include financial data, with the authority citing the delay of the report and a lack of staff meant producing a complete report was not possible.
The BGC said stabilisation had come in the form of a levelling out of online active customers in the market.
The figure reported was only slightly higher than 2023’s figure, from 154,316 to 155,643.
The average number of players who visited a gambling site at least once a week continued its three-year decline, 602,288 in 2024 compared to 614,332 in 2023 and 634,845 in 2022.
However, there was an increase in the number of players who registered online, with the figure standing at 193,342 – up from 168,113.
The commission said this was down to 31,481 new players registering for Euro 2024 last summer.
Steve Male, CJH director, admitted the 2024 report was lacking financial figures due to a lack of staff.
He said: “The 2024 annual report has been delayed and is not entirely comprehensive. It does not contain the sector’s financial data, even though this is a major element and various measures had been taken internally to enable the rapid publication of this data.
“However, these measures required a minimum of staff, and this staff was lacking.”
Black market efforts
While financial details were not forthcoming, the BGC laid out its efforts in clamping down against illegal operators.
In its tackling of the black market, the BGC said it inspected 101 illegal gambling sites in 2024, with 31 being inaccessible by inspectors.
The remaining sites were told to make themselves unavailable to Belgian players.
The BGC said 19 did so, with a further 34 subject to being being blacklisted. It added that 14 illegal sites were to be inspected again in 2025.
Last year, the Commission sent 61 illegal site reports to Belgium’s public prosecutor’s office for illegal gambling and 105 URLs were blacklisted.
However, the report added: “Two factors complicate the fight against illegal gambling and betting sites: the lack of information about the operator of anonymous sites or the inclusion of deliberately false information, which makes prosecution difficult, and the ease with which blacklisted sites can circumvent the blocking by creating new URLs, often several at the same time, or by making themselves accessible via new channels, such as apps or new websites.”
Six requests were sent to affiliate sites, asking them to inform players of Belgium’s gambling laws and adapt their content to comply with those laws – but only three did.
The CJH also said it received “several” complaints about games available through Google or Apple app stores, with two firms asked to remove games of chance from their stores.
Significant increase in fines
There were more cases of illegal online exploitation in 2024 than there was the year prior, leading to a “significant” increase in fines being handed out.
A total of 66 fines were imposed by the CJH, eight fully or partially suspended, totalling €4.6m. This was four times the amount issued in 2023 (€1.1m) and the highest total to date, with the previous record of €3m set in 2021.
However, only €27,525 was collected, down from the €236,725 received in 2023. It was noted that recovering financial fines imposed on offshore operators “remain unanswered”, with 93% of 2024’s penalties not collected.
Last May, Belgium introduced a law which banned operators offering different verticals on the same platform, as well as making it illegal to “redirect players to or confront them with games of chance covered by another licence” and “make transactions between different player accounts”.
Operators filed an appeal to the Constitutional Court for annulment, arguing the law pushes players to the black market.
A law was also introduced which raised the minimum gambling age to 21and a ban on advertising games of chance.
The post Belgian market beginning to “stabilise” as daily average number of players increases to 155,000 first appeared on EGR Intel.
Belgian regulator releases limited 2024 annual report, with number of players visiting gambling or betting sites down for the third consecutive year
The post Belgian market beginning to “stabilise” as daily average number of players increases to 155,000 first appeared on EGR Intel.