Belgium’s licensed online gambling market continued to grow in 2025, but has witnessed a sharp decline in new (first time) players, a trend that raises concerns about the active exposure of black market gambling.
Publishing its 2025 Annual Report, Kansspelcommissie (KSC), the Gambling Authority of Belgium, recorded online gross gaming revenue (GGR) of €965m (£826m), up 5.4% year-on-year.
As stands, KSC views that online gambling accounts for “59% of the regulated market” and firmly positioned as the most popular gambling channel for Belgian consumers.
By comparison, revenue from land-based gambling activities fell by 7% to €656.09m. The results underline contrasting developments in player recruitment, daily participation and demand for gambling exclusions.
Decline in fresh players
The 2025 report marks a change in how KSC has gathered data from gambling licences, due to compliance and auditing changes imposed as of 2024.
KSC licence holders have been required to submit financial information digitally each quarter. However, the regulator initially lacked sufficient capacity to process submissions fully, leaving the data absent from its previous annual report.
The appointment of a full-time employee to its Financial Control unit in December 2025 enabled further analysis and corrections.
The revised figures show that online revenue growth coincided with a substantial reduction in new players. In 2025, 110,032 people registered to gamble online for the first time, down 43.1% from 193,342 in 2024.
The KSC attributed part of this decline to Belgium’s decision to raise the minimum gambling age from 18 to 21, effective from 1 September 2024. Those aged 21–29 represented the largest group of newcomers.
These figures concern first-time players rather than every new account opened with an operator, indicating fewer people entering the licensed online market.
Despite weaker recruitment, average daily active online players increased by 3% to 160,144. Across the year, 528,706 unique individuals gambled online at least once.
Harder access points
Average daily visits to physical gambling venues fell by 24.5% to 27,532.
Within retail, casinos increased GGR by 5.85% to €152.29m, while gaming arcade revenue declined by 4.17%. Cafés recorded the largest contraction, with revenue from bingo and other gambling products falling by 17.77% to €196.01m.
Voluntary exclusions through Belgium’s Excluded Persons Information System (EPIS) rose to 66,998 at the end of 2025, compared with 56,458 a year earlier.
The regulator received 16,358 voluntary exclusion applications during the year, almost 76% submitted through its digital identification service.
Since 1 May 2025, operators have faced an expanded requirement to check every player against EPIS before granting access to gambling. The report recorded 715,373 blocked physical and online visits during 2025.
BAGO: Belgium nears a channelisation reckoning
BAGO, the association of Belgian gambling operators, said the findings reinforced concerns about consumers moving outside the regulated market.
“The fact that 28% of respondents aged 18 to 30 state they have already played on an illegal gambling site is an alarm signal that cannot be ignored,” BAGO stated.
The association argued that restrictions on licensed operators had weakened the visibility of regulated gambling, leaving consumers exposed to unauthorised providers.
“The far-reaching restrictions imposed on licensed operators render legal and regulated gaming alternatives invisible, while the illegal and clandestine circuit continues its aggressive marketing efforts to attract players.”
BAGO warned that consumers using illegal websites fall outside Belgium’s player protection framework.
“Players who end up there do not benefit from the guarantees of the Belgian framework: EPIS access control, deposit limits, and supervision by the KSC. Moreover, they can be exposed to criminal prosecution if they knowingly participate in unauthorised gambling.”
Concluding its response BAGO outlined that its attention turns to the KSC Chair Magali Clavie developing a direct response to protect Belgian consumers and licences from black market encroachment.
Belgian operators have undertaken three years of significant regulatory tightening, encompassing a comprehensive ban on advertising, raising the gambling age to +21 and compulsive requirement of new KYC procedures.
Yet the KSC has provided no strategy to minimise the threat of illegal gambling.
BAGO asserts that Clavie must act “to strengthen the regulator and urge the government to preserve a recognisable legal offering and prioritise action against illegal providers and their financial flows”.
