Europe requires clarifications from Belgium

On 1 September 2011, Belgium liberalized its online gambling market, as we reported in this article.
However, the legislation that had been approved was immediately criticised by gaming operators, which considered it non-compliant with EU law.
Thus, the European Commission announced that it would launch formal infringement proceedings against Belgium if the country failed to prove – by the end of the year – that the new law complies with the principles outlined by the European treaties.
The following are considered the problematic aspects of the law: the requirement that online operators must be based in the country and that they stipulate an agreement with a land-based casino in order to obtain a licence; the black list created by the authorities which indicates all the sites that will not be able to accept bets from Belgian residents and the blocking of online gaming rooms by Internet service providers.
The Belgian Gambling Commission has issued a statement on this subject.
According to the Commission, given that there is no regulation at EU level, the Belgian model should be considered a good system, which offers profitable conditions to operators but also ask them to satisfy various requirements to protect the citizens.
The Commission also stated that it would prefer the European Commission to respect the democratic decisions of the Member States rather than taking the side of the operators, which only seek to impose their private interests.