Belgian court rules gambling sites can’t offer more than one product from same URL

[Triple7]

Today the court in Belgian ruled that on some point the gambling law is contrary to the constitutional law. There are different types of licenses, for example, A+-license for online casino, B+ for online gambling hall and FA+ for online betting. The Gambling Commission handed out different licenses for the same domain. For example, at Unibet you can both play casino games and sports betting. Landbased such a thing is not allowed.

A smaller operator took this to court as they felt it's discrimination. The court ruled today that this is indeed the case. The exact moment is unclear, but Belgian operators will no longer be allowed to have casino games and betting on the same domain.

For those who understand Dutch, I've written an article in Dutch/Flemish:

Rocoluc NV heeft weer een belangrijke slag binnengehaald. Het won vandaag een zaak bij het Grondwettelijk Hof. Het Grondwettelijk Hof heeft geoordeeld dat de kansspelwet in strijd is met de Belgische Grondwet. Deze wet verbiedt dat op één locatie zowel casinospellen gespeeld kunnen worden als dat er gewed mag worden. Online bieden echter veel operatoren op één en dezelfde website zowel casinospelen als weddenschappen aan. Dat mag niet.

Read more (in Dutch).

[The Buzz]

Thanks, Triple7. Here is the translation of the above quote:

Rocoluc NV has again taken an important battle. It won a case today with the Constitutional Court. The Constitutional Court has ruled that the gambling act is in breach of the Belgian Constitution. This law prohibits playing at both venues and casino games. Online, however, many operators on one and the same website offer both casino games and betting. That's not allowed.

[Triple7]

From what I've understood from Ladbrokes is that they (or someone else) took it to the European Commission to see if this is not against freedom of services, etc. They definitely considered it as a big problem if they have to split up sportsbetting and casino.