Belgian trade association rails against “unequal and unfair” advertising regulations
BAGO fears legal market could shrink by as much as 50% due to changes
The Belgian Association of Gaming Operators (BAGO) has attacked the government’s ban on advertising of gambling, claiming it will force up to 50% of the legal market toward illegal operators.
Speaking exclusively to EGR, the association said the new Royal Decree will create conditions of “unequal and unfair competition” within the market by penalising legal operators.
BAGO estimated that channelisation losses due to the new measures will see as much as 50% of Belgian gambling market share moving from legal operators into the illegal market. It also claims the decree will have “negative consequences on the protection of the player, the many jobs within the legal sector and revenues of the Belgian state.”
Among the new measures to be introduced are an outright ban on online casino advertising, together with a ban on sports betting advertising during live sporting events and a ban on adverts prior to the 8pm watershed.
Citing the potential damage to the sector, BAGO said it expects some operators to challenge the implementation of the new laws in the Belgian courts.
Talks were previously underway between the Belgian government and gambling operators over a self-regulation regime for gambling advertising.
However, these talks broke down earlier this year due what BAGO called a “divergence of interests” between private operators and the Belgian government, which saw operators create their own code of ethics on marketing and advertising, while the government worked on its own measures.
BAGO said it “strongly regrets” that there was no constructive consultation with the industry on the new measures and it believes that the “weaknesses” of the new decree would have been avoided if the input of the private operators had been considered earlier.