How to get a gambling licence in Belgium: fees and steps

One federal regulator licenses and supervises games of chance; gambling taxes are regional.

• The Gaming Commission (Kansspelcommissie / Commission des jeux de hasard) decides on every licence application by a reasoned decision (Gambling Act Art. 21) and is also the AML supervisor of licensed operators.
• Since 1 June 2026 the Commission is attached to the FPS Economy (Law of 30 April 2026); the competent minister is the minister for the Economy.
• Binding rules are made by Royal Decree; the Commission has no general rule-making power of its own.
• The public lotteries of the National Lottery are outside the Gambling Act (Art. 3bis), so the Commission does not licence them.
• The gaming and betting tax is set and collected by the three Regions (Flanders, Wallonia, Brussels-Capital), not by the Commission (section 8).

Laws that apply

• Gambling Act of 7 May 1999 on games of chance, bets, gaming establishments and the protection of players (Wet op de kansspelen / Loi sur les jeux de hasard), as amended
• Law of 10 January 2010 (supplementary online licences A+, B+, F1+; in force 1 January 2011)
• Law of 18 February 2024 (age 21, bonus ban, advertising ban, no cumulation of online licences; in force 1 September 2024)
• Law of 7 May 2024 (EPIS, penalties, contributions; mostly in force 1 June 2024)
• Law of 30 April 2026 (the Gaming Commission moves to the FPS Economy; in force 1 June 2026)
• Law of 30 March 2026 (penalties reset; in force 1 September 2026)
• Royal Decree of 21 June 2011 on the form of the supplementary licence and how applications are made
• Royal Decree of 21 June 2011 on the quality conditions for a supplementary licence
• Royal Decree of 25 October 2018 on the conditions for operating games of chance online
• Royal Decree of 19 June 2022 (weekly deposit limit EUR 200; Central Individual Credit Register check)
• Royal Decree of 27 February 2023 on gambling advertising (in force 1 July 2023)
• Royal Decree of 11 March 2026 on the contribution to the Commission's costs for civil year 2026
• Law of 18 September 2017 on the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing

Every online licence is a supplementary licence to a land-based base licence of the same class, for games of the same nature as those offered in the real world (Art. 43/8 § 1). At most one supplementary licence per base licence.

• A+ (online casino games) only for a holder of a class A casino licence.
• B+ (online arcade-type games) only for a holder of a class B arcade licence.
• F1+ (online betting) only for a holder of a class F1 licence; horse-race betting also needs F1P.
• Base licences are capped: class A at 9, class B at 180, class F1 at 30 for 31 July 2022 to 31 July 2031. All 9 A and all 30 F1 licences are granted; B and F1 licences are offered only when one becomes vacant.
• The supplementary licence has no term of its own: it is valid as long as the base licence and is renewed with it (Art. 43/8 § 3).
• Licences cannot be transferred (Art. 26).

The test is the base licence, the legal form and the financial standing.

• The applicant must already hold the matching base licence A, B or F1 (Art. 43/8 § 1).
• The applicant must be a legal person under Belgian law or the law of an EU Member State, or a natural person who is an EU national; a company formed under non-EU law cannot apply (Arts 31, 36, 43/5, 50).
• Directors and managers must enjoy full civil and political rights and behave as the function requires; criminal-record extracts are needed for those who live or lived abroad in the last five years.
• No minimum share capital is set; a supplementary-licence applicant must show a solvency of 40% (RD 21 June 2011 on quality conditions, Art. 3).
• Servers holding the data and the website management must be in a permanent establishment on Belgian territory (Art. 43/8 § 2).
• No licence A, A+, B, B+, C, D, F1, F1+, F1P or F2 may be held together with a class E supplier licence, directly or indirectly (Art. 27).

No application fee is set. The regulator charges an annual contribution per licence, fixed each year by Royal Decree, and each licence carries a guarantee lodged with the Deposit and Consignment Office.

• The base licence pays its own guarantee and contribution too (2026: A EUR 25,398, B EUR 12,698, F1 EUR 14,493).
• The 2026 decree raised the amounts by 15% after no indexation since 2018; the 2027 amounts were not yet published as of 23 October 2026.
• The guarantee is lodged at the latest five days before gaming starts, and the licence is issued only after it is lodged.

Belgian servers, a permanent data link to the Commission and a platform from a class E licensee.

• The servers holding the data and the website management sit in a permanent establishment on Belgian territory (Art. 43/8 § 2). No rule addresses cloud hosting as such; whether a cloud deployment meets the "permanent establishment" wording is a question for the Gaming Commission.
• The application proves a permanent data link between the website and the Commission; licensed operators use the Commission's eGames web services (version 2.3 since 1 May 2025) and the EPIS service for the access-ban check.
• The platform is provided and maintained by a class E licensee, named in the A+ or B+ file with the E licensee for each type of game.
• Casino and arcade files include a document guaranteeing the honesty of the games, such as RNG certificates; no certifying body or technical standard is named.
• Until a new law, and at the latest 31 December 2026, supplementary licences of different classes may not share a domain name or a player account (Art. 27, annulled by the Constitutional Court with its effects kept).
• The first page of the site gives access to the general terms and the responsible-gambling provisions (RD 25 October 2018, Art. 7). No rule sets in-game displays such as a clock or an exit button.

Age 21, a weekly deposit limit of EUR 200 and a ban on bonuses.

• Players under 21 may not take part in games of chance online (Art. 54, in force 1 September 2024).
• A player may load at most EUR 200 a week onto his online play accounts (RD 25 October 2018, Art. 6, as amended by RD 19 June 2022); the Commission reads the limit as per week and per website. The player can lower it at once.
• A request for a higher limit takes effect only after three days: the operator tells the Commission at once, and the Commission refuses the raise if the National Bank's Central Individual Credit Register lists the player as a defaulter.
• Temporary self-exclusion must be offered, with no promotions during it, and players are informed of the risks through notifications and pop-ups.
• Free play, play credit and any benefit offered to influence play or to recruit or retain players are banned (Art. 60).
• Credit cards may not be used, including through e-wallets funded by a credit card (Art. 58; RD 25 October 2018, Art. 6).

Licensees must check EPIS before admitting a player in any way.

• EPIS (Excluded Persons Information System) is kept by the Gaming Commission; players exclude themselves through the Commission, and third parties, courts and professional bans add others.
• A ban is valid for physical and online casinos, arcades and betting alike; licensees A+, B+ and F1+ authenticate the player in EPIS (eID, itsme or an equivalent means) and refuse anyone excluded.
• A voluntary exclusion can be lifted on request after a waiting period of 3 months.

Belgium has no federal gambling tax. The gaming and betting tax is regional, and an online operator is taxed by the Region where its server is established or operated.

• Online games and bets: 11% of the gross margin (stakes minus winnings paid) in each Region (Flanders: Vlaamse Codex Fiscaliteit art. 2.12.4.0.1; Wallonia: art. 44bis of the Code des taxes assimilées aux impôts sur les revenus; Brussels: FPS Finance).
• Land-based bets on horse races, dog races and sporting events: 15% of the margin in all three Regions; land-based casino games have their own bands.
• Flanders: monthly return by the fifth working day of the next month. Brussels: payment on the 15th and the 1st with return 733. Wallonia: a declaration at least two days before the activity.
• Player winnings are tax-free unless the player gambles professionally.

Gambling advertising is banned except in the forms the Royal Decree of 27 February 2023 lists, and only licence holders may use them.

• Online, an operator may advertise through paid search results showing its brand name or logo, on its own website and on its own social-media accounts, with no interaction, no payment to a third party and moving images of at most 5 seconds.
• Paid social-media advertising, banners on third-party sites, e-mail, SMS and personalised advertising are not permitted forms; advertising may not show natural persons or use well-known voices.
• Sports sponsorship: brand name or logo on players' clothing only, not on the front, players under 21 excluded, at most 75 cm2 until 31 December 2027 and 50 cm2 from 1 January 2028, when sponsorship of professional associations ends. Advertising at the place where the sport is played is banned since 1 January 2025.
• Every advertisement carries the minimum age and the message "Gokken kan verslavend zijn. Stop op tijd! Meer info op www.stopoptijd.be".
• From 1 September 2026 a breach of the advertising ban carries a fine of at most EUR 576,000 (Art. 64).

Operators are obliged entities under the AML Law of 18 September 2017; the Commission is their supervisor and blocks unlicensed sites.

• AML duties: a risk assessment, a responsible person at the highest level and a compliance officer, identification before the business relationship, written reports on atypical transactions, reports to CTIF-CFI through goAML and records kept for ten years. AML fines reach EUR 1,250,000 per fact.
• The Commission lists unlicensed sites for blocking by internet providers (highest running number 1,022 on 15 October 2026) and, since 15 December 2025, can have a .be domain suspended through DNS Belgium.
• From 1 September 2026 operating without a licence carries a fine of at most EUR 960,000 (Art. 63). In 2025 the Commission issued 32 warnings, 22 suspensions, 12 withdrawals and 20 administrative fines.
• The register is the Commission's open data, one list per licence class: 81 online licences on 23 October 2026 (A+ 9, B+ 48, F1+ 24).

The online licence is added to a base licence the applicant already holds. Sequence for a base-licence holder:

1. 01

   Hold the matching base licence

   A, B or F1

   A+ needs a class A licence, B+ a class B licence and F1+ a class F1 licence. A and F1 are all granted; B and F1 open only on a vacancy.

2. 02

   Choose a class E platform partner

   class E

   The platform must be provided and maintained by a class E licensee, named in the file with the E licensee for each type of game.

3. 03

   Place the servers in Belgium

   Art. 43/8

   Host the data and the website management in a permanent establishment on Belgian territory, and set up the permanent data link to the Commission.

4. 04

   Prepare the file

   RD 21 June 2011

   Application form, shareholder identity, tax certificates, website plan, list of games or bets, payment-security plan, vulnerable-player policy, complaints procedure, advertising policy, solvency calculation and proof of means for the guarantee.

5. 05

   File with the Gaming Commission

   6 months

   By registered letter or electronically; the application is processed within six months of receipt.

6. 06

   Lodge the guarantee

   EUR 250,000 / 75,000

   At the Deposit and Consignment Office at the latest five days before gaming starts: EUR 250,000 for A+, EUR 75,000 for B+ and F1+.

7. 07

   Pay the annual contribution

   EUR 12,698 / 14,493

   For 2026: EUR 12,698 for A+ and B+, EUR 14,493 for F1+, on top of the base licence's own contribution.

8. 08

   Go live and register for tax

   11%

   Declare to the Region where the server is and pay 11% of the gross margin on online games and bets; register on goAML for AML reporting.

Tier-ordered: official government first, then practitioner, then trade media. Every primary figure was read from the in-force text on 23 Oct 2026.