Online poker: Only three legal sites and 30 poker sites banned in Belgium
Belgium is a growing country in the middle of online poker. The country is best known for live poker tournaments that took place on many times at Ostend Casino and Dinant. There are among others the Ostend Poker War whose second edition was held in January. But online poker is relatively new and the Gaming Commission of Belgium is rather strict on legalizing poker game. On Tuesday, May 15, the Commission published a list of online poker sites that was banned for non-compliance with the Belgian regulation of gambling. In all, 30 sites were seen in this list of illegal poker sites that was sent to the four major ISPs in Belgium to let them block immediately their inflows and outflows. Among these blacklisted sites, there is Partypoker, BetClick, Bwin, Betfair, William Hill and 888. The reason of this ban is the non filling of the requirements of the Commission on guarantees of repayment of the funds of players.
A fine of 100,000 was imposed on these poker sites if after having been banned they continue to provide their services to poker players in Belgium. Belgian players are also imposed a fine of 25,000 if they connect to these rooms to play. Currently, only three operators are authorized to provide their services in Belgium: PokerStars, Partouche and GoldenPalace. These operators have casinos among the eight functional casinos in the country. The possession of a land based casino is one of the main criteria to open an online poker room in Belgium.
Source: James WILLIAMS
Friday, 18 May 2012
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