European Gaming Lawyer magazine Autumn 2015 | Page 16

are able to compensate their potential losses
on the land-based market through their
online operations. Yet, only 34 offline license
holders also hold a supplementary license
for online operations. Currently, there are
only 27 different web sites to offer online
arcade games in Belgium. This also means
that there is still much room left for business
partnerships aiming at developing the online
arcades sector.
Market concentration around its strongest
actors
The working documents of the Gaming
Commission’s Study Day conference held on
27 May 2015 underline the regulator’s efforts,
over the past years, to consolidate the market
and improve its profitability, for instance
by easing the rules and requirements on
the relocation of premises. According to
the Gaming Commission, one of the side
effects of these policy actions was that no
more B class licences have been granted to
market new comers. Another side effect is
the evolution of a rather diversified market
towards a market where several, bigger,
capital strong, groups have overtaken smaller
companies: 57% of the available licences
are in the hands of groups which own 10 or
more gaming halls.
It seems the Belgian Gaming Commission
has decided to back-up this trend of market
concentration even further. In its conclusive
remarks for the conference, the regulator
pleads for a structural reorganization of
the arcades market through a decrease of
the number of licences. According to the
conclusive remarks of the Commission’s
Chairman, Etienne Marique: “For gaming
halls, the message to keep in mind is that [...],
the offer is too large and that the number of
premises should be reduced from the current
180 to 120. [...] The city (commune) which
grants concession agreements for both casinos
and gambling arcades contributes to trivialize
gambling and endangers the casino operation.
[...] The goal would be to only keep gambling
arcades with potential and to avoid the
multiplication of “lame ducks”.
Ever since this announcement, it
appears the Gambling Commission has

16 | European Gaming Lawyer | Autumn Issue | 2015

reviewed its numbers to limit the reduction
to 150 arcades, according to an official
publication on its web site of 18 August
2015. The reduction should be implemented
progressively to 174 by the end of 2015, 165
in the course of 2016 and 150 in the course
of 2017.
A first step consists in encouraging
operators to hand back their licence on a
voluntary basis. The conference working
documents and the Commission’s online
publication list further measures the
regulator intends to undertake supporting
this opinion. These include no more licence
issuances when a licence becomes vacant
(effective immediately and for a renewable
period of 3 years), no more acceptance
of relocation requests after 30 October
2015 (unless the relocation is made in the
same commune and in agreement with
the communal administration) and the
application of stricter conditions of solvency
for operators to be able to keep their licence.
However, the number of gaming
arcades being set by the law, it is not an
administrative authority’s prerogative to
discretionally decide to reduce this number.
The measures announced by the Belgian
Gaming Commission seem premature as
there has been no political consensus so far
to adapt the maximum number of licences.
It should be kept in mind that it is the
Commission’s duty to perform the missions
attributed to it by the law, which include
issuing licences to applicants who duly meet
the legal requirements defined by the BGA
and its secondary legislation.
In the Belgian Commission’s Annual
report, published on 17 June 2015, the
Chairman notes that the changes announced
in the Government’s Agreement also
constitute an opportunity to modernize
gaming legislation with the aim to rationalize
and limit the offer of games of chance,
taking into account new technical, social
and economical Belgian and international
environments. These declarations
are actually in contradiction to the
Government’s measures to further liberalise
the Belgian gaming market. At this stage,
they merely constitute opinions from the

country’s regulatory authority and it remains
to be seen whether the political decision
makers decide to translate them into action.
For operators interested in the Belgian
gaming halls segment, this could be a
call to overtake and restructure weaker
businesses which could otherwise potentially
get squeezed out of the market, should
the legislator indeed decide to follow the
regulator’s advice.
The betting sector
The regulator’s position in favour of
a market concentration has not spared
the betting sector. The Belgian Gaming
Commission, competent for the regulation
of betting services since 2011, notes in its
Conference working documents of 28 May
2015 that the canalisation of betting offers is
still insufficient.
According to the authority, reducing
the number of land-based licences seems
appropriate to stop the spreading of the offer.
Currently the number of licences is set at 34
for bookmakers (organisers of bets), 1000 for
permanent betting shops (takers of bets), and
60 for moving betting shops (Royal Decrees
of 22 December 2010). On the grounds of
the Commission’s publication of 18 August
2015 on its web site, the regulator advocates
a reduction of permanent betting shops from
1.000 to 600.
The Gaming Commission announced its
intention to apply to the relocation of betting
shops the same restrictions it also announced
for gaming halls. Requests for relocation
introduced after 30 October 2015 can only
be accepted if the relocation is made in the
same commune, with the approval of the
communal authorities and in compliance
with the requirement of a minimum distance
of 1000 meters between betting shops.
At the same time, it is interesting to
see that such a strict position against the
spreading of the betting offer has not resulted
in prohibiting new forms of betting such as
virtual sports betting. Indeed, the Gaming
Commission published a memorandum on
1 July 2015 where it concludes to the legality
of the offer of virtual sports bets under the
provisions of the BGA.