The Belgian Gaming Commission today added 10 more domains to its blacklist of unauthorised websites to be blocked by the major internet service providers in the country.
London-listed GVC Holdings’ Malta-licensed Casino Club was among the online gambling domains added to Belgium’s hit list, alongside Winner.com, Jetbull.com. Leaderbet.com, Comeon.com, 21Grandcasino.com, Spigo.be, Spelpunt.nl, Eurogrand.com and Casinotropez.com.
Nevada casino supplier WMS’ online gaming subsidiary was however granted a licence for its JackpotParty brand via its B2B partnership with land-based casino group Partouche, signed in April.
Today’s additions take the total number of blocked domains on the Commission’s hit list to 60, albeit a tiny number compared to the 4,300 on Italian regulator AAMS’ list of ISP-blocked sites, which has also proved largely ineffective. 888, Betfair, bet365 and William Hill are among the operators with websites on the blacklist.
bwin.party co-CEO Norbert Teufelberger was last month detained for questioning by Belgian police over comments he made to analysts that the bwin, PartyPoker and Gamebookers brand owner, despite being blacklisted and blocked, “still had some Belgian business” as no block was “100% safe”. bwin.party’s application for a licence under the Belgian legislation had earlier been refused.
Under the Belgian Royal Decree that came into effect on 1 January last year, online permits are restricted to licensed land-based gaming entities in Belgium, with nine A+ licences on offer to casinos, 34 F1+ permits to sports betting operators and around 180 B+ licences to arcade operators.
Online operators without a Belgian licence run the risk of fines of up to €100,000 for “facilitating”, “advertising” or “recruiting” for illegal games of chance in Belgium. Players in the country also face fines of up to €25,000 for playing on sites that haven’t been licensed by the Commission.
PokerStars and Unibet are the only other pure online operators to gain permits from the Belgian Gaming Commission. PokerStars launched on a regulated basis back in 2010 via its partnership with Belgian casino owner Circus Groupe. Unibet operates online poker and casino under a strategic partnership with Rank Group, which owns two of 11 land-based casinos in Belgium, as well as a licensed sportsbook.
