Ladbrokes.be: "Casinos are allowed to promote their activities again"

[ocreditor]

According to this email arrived from Ladbrokes.be Casinos are allowed to promote their activities again in Belgium.

Dear affiliates,

Hereby we'd like to inform you that Belgian online gambling operators are again allowed to promote their activities (casino and gaming halls).
This arises as a result from a recent judgment from the Council of State (in attachment).

The Council of State annuled (for reasons of discrimination) article 1 of the Royal Decree of the 25th of November 2018 which stated:

"Article 1er. Les titulaires de licence de classe A+ ou B+ peuvent faire la promotion des jeux de hasard qu'ils exploitent au moyen des instruments de la société de l'information uniquement sur le site Internet sur lequel l'exploitation de ces jeux est autorisée ou par le biais de publicités personnalisées au sens du Livre VI ou du Livre XII du Code de droit économique. Les titulaires d'une licence de classe A+ ou B+ doivent veiller à n'adresser aucune publicité personnalisée aux personnes auxquelles l'accès aux jeux de hasard est interdit ou refusé en vertu de l'article 54 de la loi du 7 mai 1999 sur les jeux de hasard, les paris, les établissements de jeux de hasard et la protection des joueurs."

Therefore, and taking in to account the "erga omnes" character of such a judgment, Belgian online gambling operators (casino and gaming halls) are again allowed to promote their activities outside of their own website.


Best regards,


Ladbrokes.be

Ladbrokes is the only Belgium operator to send this update, no other regulated BE casino announced this and I didn't find anything about this on the web.. Maybe here anyone knows anything about this law change?

[niklasm]

Would like to know some more regarding this update.
I got a mail that free play games and bonusses are no longer allowed from march on.

[Christiaan]

There was a lot of confusion going on about the new ruling. They were allowed to promote outside of their own website anyway, but they could not promote bonusses.

Simply said, from now on casinos can't give a bonus or free play to players. I got this confirmed from multiple legal Belgian brands.

[ocreditor]

They sent another update, also all other operators sent so now everything is clear again, bonuses are out:

Dear affiliates,

We contact you in your capacity as an affiliate of Ladbrokes.be, acting on behalf of DERBY SA/NV (Belgium), as well as our casino partner, Grand Casino de Dinant SA, operating under the respective online gambling licenses awarded by the Belgian Gaming Commission.

The Belgian Council of State recently annulled some provisions of the Royal Decree of 25 October 2018 concerning the conditions to exploit online games of chance and bets (hereafter the "Royal Decree").

As a matter of consequence, it is now prohibited under Belgian Law to advertise any types of bonuses for online gambling targeting Belgian customers.

More broadly, it is now prohibited for online gambling to offer free game plays or bonuses in any form whatsoever.

It seems that the Belgian Gaming Commission will enforce strict compliance with the above total ban for online bonuses as from 1st March, 2020.

We therefore hereby formally request that you remove any kind of advertisement and /or content promoting free game plays or bonuses on Ladbrokes' Belgian websites, targeting Belgian customers, by 1st March, 2020 at latest.

We thank you in advance for your prompt action and as per clause 17.6 of ou General terms of the "Ladbrokes.beAffiliation" Program, consider this email as a notice under the terms of this agreement.

Should you have any question in relation to the above, please contact us at noel.deweert@gvcgroup.com


Kind regards

Ladbrokes.be