Belgian Gaming Commission reports annual figures for 2023

The Belgian Gaming Commission has published its 2023 annual report. It shows that the gambling market grew by 16.74% in 2023 to a turnover of 1.7 million.

The growth comes from both offline (+15.18%) and online gambling (+18.03%). However, the increase is less than in previous years, so the next reports seem to indicate a slowdown in market growth.

Offline Reaches pre-Covid level

The annual report now provides a clear picture of the COVID period and the recovery of the market afterwards. In 2023, we can even conclude that the market has fully recovered for offline gambling, while online gambling has accelerated its growth after COVID. The online gambling market in Belgium is currently twice as large as it was before COVID. 

Offline, bingo is King

The only notable decline was recorded in bets in newspaper shops, which can be explained by the stricter regulations introduced in 2022 to combat “fake newspaper shops”. For the rest, the impact of other changes, such as the imposition of an online deposit limit or the requirement of a covenant for betting offices, is not noticeable.

The cafés, on the other hand, saw that the Games of Chance with reduced stakes (K.V.I) yielded less than in 2022. Here there was a decrease of no less than 7.59%. Nevertheless, the market grew partly due to a solid growth of 31.41% in turnover at bingos.

Waiting for the impact of the advertising ban

The various government measures to slow down the sector must still be awaited in the 2024 annual report. Despite this, gambling remains extremely popular in Belgium and it remains to be seen what the new government plans in the field of taxation.