A briefing session on the new Belgian Gambling Act took place in Brussels on Tuesday.
Organised by the Belgian Gaming Commission, the idea of the briefing session was to inform operators (who want to be active in Belgium) of the major principles of the new Gambling Act, which entered into force on January 1, 2011.
The issue of the compliance of the new Gambling Act with EU law and cross-border issues was not discussed. In view of the fact that a set of royal decrees still has to be passed in order to implement the new Gambling Act on a number of aspects, enforcement issues were not on the agenda either.
Koen Platteau, a partner at law firm Olswang, told iNTERGAMINGi: "A number of implementing Royal Decrees still need to be adopted, including those related to the online licences. As a result, it is not expected that the online provisions in the new Act will effectively enter into force before June 2011."
