Online gambling in Belgium: regulation, licence and market guide

Is online gambling legal in Belgium?

The Gaming Act of 7 May 1999 prohibits games of chance unless licensed by the Gaming Commission. Online licences (A+ for casino, B+ for arcade-style dice and slot games, F1+ for betting) are available only to operators that already hold the matching land-based licence, and their number is capped at nine, 180 and 30. Since 2023–2024 Belgium has become one of Europe's most restrictive markets: advertising is banned except where a Royal Decree expressly allows it, the gambling age rose to 21 for every product on 1 September 2024, bonuses are prohibited and the default deposit limit is €200 per week per site. The regional tax on online GGR is 11%. Belgian GGR was €1.61 billion in 2024, 57% of it online.

Regulated: Private operators can hold a local licence for online casino and/or betting.

Who regulates gambling in Belgium?

• Kansspelcommissie / Commission des jeux de hasard (Gaming Commission) — Licenses casinos, arcades, betting operators and their online extensions, runs the EPIS exclusion register, maintains the blacklist of illegal sites and imposes sanctions

Belgium gambling licence: how it works

Belgium operates a closed system. An online licence is an add-on to a land-based licence of the same kind: a casino (A licence, nine available) may hold an A+ online casino licence, an arcade operator (B licence, 180 available) a B+ licence, and a betting organizer (F1 licence, 30 available) an F1+ licence. In autumn 2025 all nine A+ licences, 51 B+ and 22 F1+ were active. Only EU citizens or EU-registered companies may apply, the operator needs a permanent establishment in Belgium with servers accessible to the Commission, and the Commission decides within six months of a complete file. Because A and F1 licences are fully allocated, market entry usually means acquiring or partnering with an existing licence holder. A and A+ licences run for a renewable 15 years; B, B+, F1 and F1+ for nine.

What an applicant needs

• Matching land-based licence (A, B or F1) held by the same operator
• EU-registered company with a permanent establishment and servers in Belgium
• Real-time EPIS exclusion register checks before each session
• Separate player accounts for each licence type (no cumul under one domain)
• Mandatory deposit limit of €200 per week per site with controlled increases
• Refusal of credit card deposits and AML compliance as an obliged entity
• Prevention messaging, age display and self-exclusion tools on every page

Gambling taxes in Belgium

• Operators: Regional tax on online games of chance and betting of 11% of GGR in Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels, plus corporate income tax; since 2024 the regional gambling tax is no longer deductible for corporate tax, a change the Constitutional Court upheld in October 2025.
• Players: None on winnings for recreational players.
• Also: The Flemish coalition agreement referenced a possible increase of the online rate. The National Lottery pays a separate monopoly rent to the state.

Advertising, player protection, KYC and payments

Advertising

All advertising for games of chance is prohibited unless expressly authorized by the Royal Decree of 27 February 2023 (in force 1 July 2023) and, since 2024, the Gaming Act itself. Personalized advertising and the use of real or fictional characters are banned; incidental exposure during sports coverage is tolerated; sponsorship of professional sports clubs is allowed only until 1 January 2028; transitional advertising contracts ended on 1 January 2025. Every permitted message must show the age of 21 and the prevention slogan.

Responsible gaming

EPIS exclusion checks, a default €200 weekly deposit limit per site that can be raised only after a solvency check with a waiting period, mandatory pop-up warnings, session information, self-exclusion options and a total ban on bonuses and free bets online.

Identity and age verification

Age 21 for all gambling since 1 September 2024. Identity is verified against the national register before play, and land-based venues must also check identity and EPIS at the door since 1 May 2025.

Payments

Bancontact, bank transfer, debit cards and e-wallets are used; credit card deposits are prohibited and cryptoassets are considered incompatible with AML and deposit-limit duties by the Commission. Unlicensed sites are blacklisted and blocked by Belgian ISPs under powers formalized in 2024.

Notable restrictions

• Minimum age 21 for every product, online and offline
• No bonuses, free bets or other incentives online
• Default deposit limit of €200 per week per website
• Online licence only with a matching land-based licence and Belgian establishment
• No credit card deposits
• Lotteries reserved to the National Lottery, including online

Belgium iGaming market: size, players and payments

Gaming Commission financial report for 2024 (published March 2026): total GGR €1.61 billion (−4.9%), of which online €919 million (57%, −2.7%) and land-based €690 million; online betting GGR was €233 million. The Commission flagged the first decline since 2020 and called for research on player migration to unregulated sites.

193,342 new online players registered in 2024, boosted by Euro 2024; the Commission counts daily active players through EPIS-linked accounts.

The online market is shared among the nine A+ casino licensees (including Napoleon, Circus, Golden Palace and Casino777), B+ arcade brands and F1+ bookmakers such as Unibet, Betfirst, Ladbrokes and bet777, alongside the National Lottery's Scooore betting brand.

Timeline: how Belgium got here

1. 1999-05Gaming Act of 7 May 1999 creates the Gaming Commission and the licence classes
2. 2011-01Online licences A+, B+ and F1+ become available to land-based licence holders
3. 2022-10Default weekly deposit limit lowered to €200 per site
4. 2023-07Royal Decree of 27 February 2023 bans gambling advertising except where expressly authorized
5. 2024Gaming Act amendments: bonus ban, split accounts per licence type, statutory blacklist and advertising ban
6. 2024-09Minimum gambling age of 21 applies to all products
7. 2025-10Constitutional Court upholds non-deductibility of the regional gambling tax
8. 2026-03Gaming Commission publishes 2024 financials: GGR €1.61 billion, first fall since 2020

Outlook

Operators have challenged the 2024 amendments before the Constitutional Court; check the outcome before relying on the bonus ban and age rules being final. Professional sports sponsorship ends on 1 January 2028, the Flemish government has signaled a possible tax increase, and the Commission is expected to publish 2025 figures and a study on migration to unlicensed sites. Enforcement now covers identity checks at all land-based venues and ISP blocking under the 2024 statutory basis.

Launching in Belgium with GameBridge

Turnkey (your licence, our platform). Only holders of a Belgian A+, B+ or F1+ licence may serve Belgian players, so GameBridge supplies the platform to a licence holder or its partner; GameBridge holds no Belgian licence and geo-excludes Belgium for other brands.

A Belgian deployment runs with French and German site languages (Dutch content supplied by the operator), a euro wallet, Bancontact and bank rails on request and geo-controls limited to Belgium with an age-21 gate. The compliance layer enforces the €200 weekly deposit limit with the increase workflow, EPIS checks before each session, split wallets per licence type, the bonus-free promotion setting and credit card refusal. Servers and data access are arranged to meet the Belgian establishment requirement, and the certification package supports Commission approval of games and platform changes.

• Age-21 gate and Belgium-only geo-controls
• €200 weekly deposit limit with solvency-check workflow
• EPIS lookup before every session
• Split wallets and domains per licence type
• Bonus engine disabled for Belgian players
• Credit card refusal and Bancontact rails on request

Belgian A+ lobbies mix slots, live casino and dice-style games under the Commission's game protocols; the aggregated catalog is curated to studios with Belgian-approved versions and GameBridge Studios exclusives ship with the certification package, while the sportsbook module serves F1+ brands.

Frequently asked questions

Sources and review

Reviewed against the sources below on 11 September 2026. Regulation changes; confirm the current position with local counsel before launch.

• RD advertising (Royal Decree of 27 February 2023) guidance — Belgian Gaming Commission, accessed 2026-09-11
• Jaarverslag financiële gegevens 2024 — Kansspelcommissie, accessed 2026-09-11
• Belgium: Gambling Law – Country Comparative Guide — The Legal 500, accessed 2026-09-11
• Gaming Law 2025: Belgium – Trends and Developments — Chambers and Partners, accessed 2026-09-11
• Gambling Laws and Regulations Report 2026: Belgium — ICLG, accessed 2026-09-11
• Belgium gambling market records first decline since pandemic in 2024 stats — iGB, accessed 2026-09-11

Regulatory summaries are provided for orientation only and are not legal advice. Licensing requirements change; we validate them with you during scoping.