Belgium Wants Stricter Gambling Advertisement Measures

Belgian gambling regulator the Belgian Gambling Commission is seeking stricter advertisement rules for gambling companies in the Western European country, with six points that they're aiming to drive home.

The regulator is looking for bans on personalized ads, limits on gambling ad volume, allowing for opting out of gambling ad targeting, no billboard advertising, Furthermore, the regulator wants the power to enforce breaches when they occur.

Such a request will have to be approved of by the country's government, and may some time away from being implemented. There's also discussion about amending Belgian law to separate online casino gambling from traditional gambling in terms of regulation.

Regarding the matter, the BGC wrote: "Experience has shown that an exhaustive enumeration of prohibitions relating to the content of advertising, as currently contained in the Royal Decree of 2018, is not sufficient to prevent abuses and excesses, and that certain rules quickly become obsolete and cannot be maintained.

"Guidelines would have the advantage of being 'future proof' and evolutionary in order to better reflect the reality and changes on the ground. This would also strengthen the role of the Gambling Commission as regulator."

"Conducting a lengthy sanctions procedure, as is currently the case, is of no use in the context of an advertising campaign that is short-lived by nature."

We're following this story and will be updating readers as we learn more.