Belgium to tighten online deposit limits
Council of Ministers approves legislation to change mandatory deposit limits to €200 per operator website
Belgium’s Council of Ministers has approved a draft Royal Decree revising the current weekly €500 (£427) mandatory deposit limit to just €200 (£171) per week.
The proposal from Belgian Minister of Justice Vincent Van Quickenborne is aimed at providing greater protection for Belgian players and follows the introduction of the €500 per week limit in April 2020.
Under current rules, operators found in breach of these mandatory limits are subject to sanction by the Belgian Gaming Commission (BGC), with any funds deposited above this limit refunded back to players.
In addition to lowering the mandatory deposit limit threshold, the decree proposes making the €200 per week deposit limit enforceable per operator website, rather than the current system based on total gambling spend.
The draft decree also includes additional rules under which the BGC can ask for Central Individual Credit Register data from the National Bank of Belgium for any persons deemed to be in breach of these limits.
A central pillar of this is the creation of a close cooperating and data sharing agreement between the National Bank of Belgium and the BGC.
The decree has been sent for review by the Belgian Data Protection Authority, after which it will also be sent to the Belgian Council of State for a separate review.
If approval is received from both entities, the limit changes will pass into law.