LIVRO VERDE – Respostas de outras jurisdições: Bélgica – Belgian Gaming Commission

19/05/2012 by admin in Livro Verde No Comments

Belgian Gaming Commission

Preliminary observations:

1. Regulator’s position

These answers of the Gaming Commission, the Belgian advisory, decision-making and regulatory body in respect of games of chance established by law (see question 46), reflect the vision of the Gaming Commission as recorded in July 2011.

2. Status of Belgian gamling law in the area of online gambling

Contrary to what is specified in the supplementary document of the European Commission (page 7, Figure 1. Member States’ policy positions towards remote gambling in 2005), up until 1 January 2011 a ban was in place on the operation of games of chance by way of information society instruments in Belgium. On Thursday 3 December 2009, the Belgian Parliament gave its final assent to 2 Acts that
thoroughly modified the Games of Chance Act dated 7 May 1999. With the insertion of a new chapter IV/1 into the existing Games of Chance Act, the Belgian Parliament regulated the operation of games of chance by way of information society instruments.

Following in the footsteps of the tolerance policy of the Public Prosecution Service vis-à-vis casinos in the 20th century, again an overall ban (i.c. the ban to operate games of chance over the Internet) was transformed into a legalised market situation.

The legislation was treated by the Belgian Parliament as a matter of urgency. This was necessary, amongst other things because of the illegal operation of games of chance on the Belgian market by operators who set up their gambling activities outside the borders of the Belgian territory.

The Belgian Constitutional Court has expressed in a detailed judgment of 14 July 2011 that the Belgian Gaming Act respects the Belgian Constitution and that it is clear that the Belgian Gaming Act is compatible with the European legislation.

On 1 January 2011, the new legislation came into effect. Once the implementing orders have been published by way of Royal Decrees, the first supplementary licences (see question 9) for operating games of chance by way of information society instruments will be able to be issued from September 2011. Various Royal Decrees are to guide and steer this process and will be communicated to the European Commission. Two Royal Decrees which constitute the regulatory foundation for awarding supplementary licences have already been communicated to the European Commission and have been published in the Belgian Official Gazette of 15 July 2011. These Royal Decrees are set to take effect on 1 September 2011.

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