€34 billion wagered: the National Lottery reveals the figures and targets private sites
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27 May 2026 •
Reading time: 3 minutes
Through the ‘Cartes sur table’ initiative, the National Lottery is revealing previously unpublished figures and directly challenging its private-sector competitors.
At its conference entitled ‘Cartes sur table’, the National Lottery chose to publicly disclose usage data for its online platform. It intends to demonstrate its exemplary role in the fight against addiction, whilst pushing private operators towards total transparency. And with good reason: the total sums generated in the country are staggering.
A €34 billion gambling market
According to the latest data from the Gaming Commission, more than €23 billion was wagered online alone in Belgium during 2024. If we add the physical network (casinos, gaming halls and betting shops), the stakes collected by private operators reach the colossal figure of €33.7 billion.
By way of comparison, this private market was worth ‘only’ €10.3 billion in 2012. Against this backdrop of explosive growth, the National Lottery, for its part, reports a more modest turnover of €1.5 billion for its own games.
For Jannie Haek, CEO of the National Lottery, it is time to analyse what is really going on behind these vast sums of money. She directly contrasts two visions of the sector:
- that of the Lottery, based on a collective model where a multitude of players bet very small amounts to support good causes,
- and that of private operators, often owned by foreign shareholders, whose priority remains the bottom line.
Legal vs illegal: a false dichotomy
The institution regrets that political debates are too often limited to the simple distinction between legal and illegal. In its view, a serious public policy should scientifically measure the intensity of gambling, the frequency of bets, the illusion of control, or the possibility of playing again instantly.
To demonstrate its good faith, the Lottery highlights its ‘Nutriscore’ risk system, available to its players to assess the risk level of each product.
Jannie Haek’s frontal attack on RTL Info
As a guest on Bel RTL’s morning show, Jannie Haek took advantage of this transparency initiative to detail the safeguards on his platform, whilst taking direct aim at his direct competitors.
The head of the state-owned group emphasised, in particular, a strict rule specific to his site: as soon as a player wins more than 500 euros, the money is immediately and automatically transferred to their personal bank account, thereby removing any temptation to immediately re-wager the winnings.
“It’s an effective measure; it seems quite obvious to me. Across our two million player accounts, there’s only €16 million. Not even ten euros per account on average. It’s an extra layer of protection.”
Given this average of just a few euros per active account, the National Lottery now demands that the same transparency be imposed on private casinos and online betting sites, suggesting that money is accumulating on these platforms without any real oversight.
“It might become attractive for other activities”
When asked about the potential abuses by its competitors, who allow players to hoard massive sums in their online profiles, Jannie Haek did not mince his words, alluding to the spectre of money laundering:
“When you can put any amount into your player account, it might become attractive for other activities. We mustn’t rule it out. Why would anyone have such large sums hidden away in a player account? It’s impossible at the National Lottery, but elsewhere it might be.”
The message has got through, and the debate on the regulation of players’ accounts in Belgium has been reignited more than ever.