“Fined and gone in a flash” – Qbet case highlights problem for Belgian Gaming Commission
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19 Mar 2026 •
Reading time: 2 minutes
It looks like a flight. Barely a day after a record fine of nearly €25 million, the parent company behind the gambling site Qbet has vanished from Curaçao. The news once again exposes a painful problem: online casinos can relocate at lightning speed, whilst enforcement lags behind. For Belgium, too, this is a familiar and frustrating story.
A multi-million euro fine and an immediate departure
Earlier this week, the Kansspelautoriteit imposed a heavy penalty on Novatech Solutions, the company behind Qbet. The online casino was operating without a licence on the Dutch market, despite holding a Curaçao licence.
What happened next unfolded remarkably quickly. According to gambling expert João Mar, Novatech Solutions was struck off the Chamber of Commerce in Curaçao on 11 March 2026. That was just one day after the fine was made public.
Yet Qbet remains active online. The website still refers to a valid Curaçao licence. It is unclear where the company is now relocating to. Possible new locations such as Anjouan or Belize have been mentioned, but there is no concrete evidence.
The familiar pattern that is also affecting Belgium
Arrangements of this kind are nothing new. Gambling operators often base themselves in countries with more lenient regulations and relocate as soon as regulators intervene. The same thing happened previously with Lalabet, which left Curaçao following sanctions and later continued under a different name.
This is particularly relevant for Belgium. The Belgian Gaming Commission applies strict rules and maintains a blacklist, but collecting fines from foreign companies proves difficult in practice. As soon as a company changes jurisdiction, oversight becomes blurred and enforcement becomes complex.
It is striking that Qbet is not currently on the Belgian blacklist. That does not mean the problem does not exist, but rather that the reality of international gambling sites is evolving faster than the regulations can keep up.
A system lagging behind
The case involving Qbet demonstrates just how fast the sector is moving. Companies disappear, reappear elsewhere and continue to reach players in the meantime. Regulators react, but often find themselves playing catch-up.
For countries such as Belgium, where the rules are strict but digital borders are blurring, this remains a persistent problem with no easy solution.