Belgium to draw up 100-site blacklist next year
Unlicensed sites such as bwin, with a significant Belgian player base, are likely to be main targets of the crackdown.
The Belgian Gaming Commission (BGC) will begin drawing up a blacklist of unlicensed sites in the new year with a view to imposing fines on “[P]ersons and operators facilitating illegal games of chance”.
This follows the finalisation of agreements with internet service providers and banking institutions, meaning the first 10 names on the list will be revealed at the same time as the country issues its first wave of official online licences.
Peter Naessens, head of the regulatory unit at the BGC, has told eGaming Review that banks and ISPs are being encouraged to end their professional relationships with unlicensed sites and, if necessary, open up new relationships with the eight sites currently licensed in the EU member state.
The commission currently estimates that between 30-40,000 Belgian players are using licensed sites, compared to 150,000 using unlicensed sites, however initially only those sites with a high number of Belgian customers will be targeted.
Naessens explained: “We already have official police reports indicating which websites are operating illegally. We will see which have a significant number of Belgian players and those will be more relevant to us.
“We are now receiving messages from operators like bwin saying they’re not interested in having a licence or saying they don’t need one as the Belgian gambling act is not compatible with EU law, so if they continue saying this to players they will be added to the blacklist,” he added.
However Sigrid Ligné, secretary general of lobby group EGBA which counts bwin.party among its members, has questioned the plans put in place by the BGA, suggesting it remains incompatible with European legislation.
“It is a fact that the original draft [Belgian egaming law] has not been changed to take into account the comments of the European Commission (EC) so we suspect that there are still provisions that are not compliant with EU law,” she explained.
Ligné specifically cited the “restrictive” attachment of online licences to offline operations, adding: “We have introduced a formal complaint to the EC urging them to take action. This has not led to any action yet but we believe they are investigating the situation.”
Naessens expects between 10 and 15 operators to be added to the country’s blacklist in January, with the figure rising to 100 before the end of 2012.
There are currently only eight licensed operators in the country: PokerStars, Partouche, PMU, Casino770, Wimigames, Circus, GPWin and MagicDice, although others are able to apply for the online licences set to be awarded in January or February. Naessens anticipates the number of licensees to approach 15 by the end of February.
“I think economically we have a market for a maximum of 20 websites but theoretically there are nine casino licences plus 180 for gaming and 34 for betting “ that’s the absolute maximum we would be able to award,” Naessens admitted.
Belgium’s approach follows Italy announcing plans to draw up a blacklist of its own, with Italian regulator AAMS consulting with banking institutions to improve its knowledge of transactions involving unlicensed sites.
This week the Italian media has reported that conversations between police and financial institutions has led to a 1.2m fine for a player yet to pay tax on winnings from unlicensed dot.com poker sites.
An AAMS representative was unable to comment before receiving more detailed information from the police force, but explained that if the blacklist legislation is passed then the regulator would have more direct access to such discussions, although it would still not have any police power to impose penalties comparable to the fine in question.
(Photo: Mike Hammerton)