The figures do not lie. Two-thirds of online gambling traffic in Belgium ends up with unlicensed providers.
Belgian professional football has always been driven by sponsorship deals. While the government is tightening the rules on gambling-related advertising, the links between clubs and industry players remain surprisingly strong.
It once seemed like a smart move. Start a company in Curaçao, arrange a gambling licence, open a bank account in Cyprus, and you were good to go. But those days are over. Anyone still operating this way is not only taking a risk. They will soon be out of the game.
In Mouscron, a sensitive family case is now before the courts. A man addicted to online gambling is being prosecuted for dipping into the bank accounts of his own grandmother, who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
A local woman saw her bank account drained of several hundred euros in less than an hour, without ever losing her card. Her testimony sheds light on a discreet but highly effective form of fraud: copying bank details.
A hidden economy of more than €80 billion. That is the estimate of what circulates annually in illegal online gambling within Europe. For the first time, regulators from Belgium, France, Germany, Spain and Britain, among others, are jointly sounding the alarm.
The Conseil d’État has annulled the Royal Decree of 2022, which strictly regulated sports betting in press shops in order to combat ‘fake press shops’. The high court ruled that the government had exceeded its powers by defining criteria that were the responsibility of the legislator. This decision creates an immediate legal vacuum in the gambling sector.
The tone has been set in The Hague, the Netherlands. While Belgium is openly investigating and tightening ties between politics and the gambling industry, the Netherlands is lagging behind. MP Mirjam Bikker received zero response when she asked for a plenary debate on contacts between the government and the gambling sector.
The urge is gone, but peace does not return. People who quit gambling often come up against a wall of emotions and physical symptoms. The withdrawal is real – even without drugs or alcohol.
In 2025, the National Lottery produced 295 major winners, including 40 millionaires.
An artistic event became an unintended stage for online casinos. It has emerged that the website of the Haagse School Dag was misused by hackers.
The Brussels Region is preparing to launch an exceptional call for tenders for a concession for the Grand Casino de Bruxelles, estimated at €750 million, designed to redefine the operation of the country’s main casino.
PepperMill Casino has always made player protection a top priority. Now the company is going one step further by partnering with Mindway AI, the leading AI tool for player protection.
The winds of change are blowing through gambling supervision in both the Netherlands and Belgium. Two regulatory authorities are making a conscious choice to deploy more expertise and manpower to better protect players.
There is no simple answer to this question because it depends on the affiliate site. Some, such as Gambling Club, only list legal casinos, while others promote illegal casinos. We demystify everything for you and give you tips on how to avoid falling into the traps of illegal sites.
The name and reputation of Scooore.be, a betting site owned by the National Lottery, are being misused to create fake casino sites. Behind these imitations lies a well-oiled fraudulent system aimed at luring players to unauthorised platforms.
