Newsagents and Lottery Ticket Offices in Belgium Will Soon Have to Equip Their Slot Machines with a Card Reader for the Electronic ID Cards, the eID Cards 

This is to prevent minors or registered gambling addicts from gambling there. You can now only play in Belgian casinos after presenting your ID.

BELGIUM (October 4, 2023) — According to a local media outlet, last Friday, the core cabinet of the Belgian federal government approved a bill from Federal Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne (Open VLD).

VRT News report the gambling and betting machines in newsagents should be equipped with a card reader into which players must insert their ID. If it turns out that a player is still a minor or that he is on the blacklist of the Belgian Gambling Commission, he must be denied access to the gaming machine.

There are currently around 120,000 people on this blacklist, as Justice Minister Van Quickenborne states: “This prevents problem gamblers from being able to indulge their addiction in newsagents because they are no longer allowed to gamble elsewhere.” Last year, according to the figures from the gambling Commission, such individuals attempted to gamble in casinos approximately 276,000 times.

However, newsagents and lottery ticket offices will be granted a transition period of 2 years. By the way, Belgian betting shops also have to reintroduce identity checks for their customers after a lengthy legal process.

SOURCE: VRT News.