More than 2,000 illegal gambling websites found in Belgium

Research by gambling analysis firm Yield Sec shows that there were 2,214 illegal gambling websites in Belgium in 2023. Only 500 of those are blacklisted and effectively blocked by the Belgian Gambling Commission, due to a lack of resources, Het Laatste Nieuws reports.

"Taking an illegal website offline is a time-consuming job," Stefaan Savenberg, secretary of the Gambling Commission, told the newspaper. "We draw up an official report and send it to the public prosecutor's office. If nothing happens with it, we can decide to add that site to the blacklist.”

Savenberg says they currently have only one employee dealing with these cases. “Due to a lack of resources, we cannot crack down harder on illegal sites. The day after we block a site, the same site sometimes reappears, but with one more letter or number in the link. We then have to start a whole procedure again to block that new URL as well."

The Gambling Commission blocked the website fastpay-casino.com on 21 April 2021, after which they had to deal with the successors fastpay-casino20, fastpay-casino21, fastpay-casino22 and fastpay-casino42. These were all blocked in July that same year.

Savenberg, however, points out that the commission, despite these difficulties, has stepped up its fight. As a result, the number of blacklisted websites has increased from 173 in April 2020 to about 500 today.

Many of the complaints about illegal gambling sites come from legal gambling enterprises who are frustrated about the unfair competition, such as Gaming1, the company behind gambling platform Circus.

Gaming1 believes the number of illegal gamblers has increased due to stricter rules. According to the company, measures such as scrapping bonuses and restricting advertising are counterproductive and stigmatising.

^{A man gambling online ​ © PHOTO PAUL ELLIS / AFP}