Since October 1, 2022, a new legislative provision is imposed on all betting agencies based in Belgium. From now on, in order to predict the next Standard victory, each player must show his credentials at the entrance. Every time they pass. That means showing his identity card, stating his profession, being photographed and signing a register that compiles all this information stored... for ten years. This allows the operator to check that the bettor is not in the database of people banned from gambling, called EPIS (Excluded Persons Information System). This rule, which is already in force in casinos and gaming halls, has been in effect for the past two weeks in all 549 betting agencies in the country. And it is already making news...

According to the first figures sent to Le Soir by the Gambling Commission, this new measure has generated 9,317 blockages in the first two weeks. "It does not mean that 9,317 people were blocked, because the same person may have been blocked several times," says Magali Clavie, president of the Gambling Commission. "This is obviously a significant number. For casinos, we count an average of 200 blockages per month and we are around 1,000 blockages for the physical gaming rooms (three times less than the betting agencies)," continues our interlocutor.

This shows that a lot of people who are banned from gambling were visiting the betting shops. "We get a lot of calls from people who are concerned. Some people never realized they were banned from casinos because they don't go to them. But anyone who is in debt mediation is automatically on the EPIS register, so they don't have access to the betting agencies anymore," says the president.

Attacks galore

The sector, for its part, is having trouble digesting. After long months of stoppage due to covid, the agencies are losing some loyal customers. And also believe that the amount of data to be provided at the entrance "discourages many bettors who refuse this disproportionate file".

According to the first feedback from the field collected by Yannik Bellefroid, president of the Professional Union of Betting Agencies (UPAP) and CEO of Ladbrokes Belgium, operators are already seeing a drop in their turnover of around 25%. "I don't deny the problem of gambling addiction. But we didn't wait for the Minister of Justice to take initiatives. We have been working with the Gambling Clinic for 20 years to see how to limit the risk of addiction," says Bellefroid, who argues that no controls should be imposed on gamblers under 200 euros per day. "No doubt the minister wants to ease his conscience by claiming to protect the consumer with this law, but it does not solve the basic problem. On the contrary, people who really want to play are driven into the arms of illegal operators on the net, or in bookstores where there is strangely no EPIS control." A thinly disguised attack on the National Lottery, the undisputed queen of bookstore gaming. However, Groen has submitted a bill to the House of Representatives to extend EPIS control to bookstores. And "the Gaming Commission is in favor of it," says Magali Clavie. "But we need to find a technological system where the control could be done directly on the machine, because we can't ask the bookseller what we ask the operator of a betting agency."

In the meantime, the sector federated around the UPAP is attacking this new provision wherever it can. Appeals have been filed with the Council of State and the Constitutional Court. On Tuesday, a new action will be filed in summary proceedings against the Belgian state before the Court of First Instance in Namur. It focuses on a specific point: the non-compliance with the GDPR. "By imposing a massive collection of data to be kept for ten years, the legislator imposes on agencies to be in breach of the GDPR, as has moreover pointed out by the Data Protection Authority in three separate opinions. We ask the court to note these violations, and to condemn the State to review its copy", explains Audrey Despontin, lawyer of the UPAP.