Gambling licence holders in Belgium have renewed a Duty of Care Charter for customers, redesigned to improve the safety of online gambling environments.
The charter is overseen by Belgium’s Association for Online Gambling (BAGO) and carries the commitment of the five domestic licences of Ardent, BetFirst, Golden Palance, Napoleon and Star Casino.
BAGO membership will uphold Duty of Care as a commitment to ‘detect problematic gambling behaviours, intervene early and proportionately, and embed player protection structurally within customer services and operations’.
Duty of Care is closely linked to the objective of strengthening channelisation, a central pillar protecting Belgian consumers. BAGO views its membership as the only operators committed to providing the safest online gambling environments.
As such, the trade association has formalised a ‘collective strengthening of safer gambling standards at a time when Belgium’s regulated market faces mounting pressure from offshore competition’.
In a statement accompanying the launch, BAGO said that the framework ensures that ‘player protection is not an abstract principle but a concrete operational obligation, embedded in systems, training and day-to-day customer interaction’.
At the centre of the charter is a commitment to proactive monitoring. Licensed operators will deploy enhanced AI-driven systems that are capable of analysing player behaviour in real time to assess various different player behaviours, including frequency of play, session duration, intensity of play and deposit patterns.
However, monitoring alone is not sufficient. The charter also sets out a graduated intervention model which will require operators to tailor their responses to the level of observed risk.
BAGO stated: “Detection must be followed by proportionate and timely action. A Duty of Care only has meaning if it translates into concrete engagement with the player.”
A key pillar for public safety is EPIS, the (Exclusion of Persons Information System) for Belgian gamblign operators. Under the charter, operators reaffirm their obligation to ensure seamless integration with EPIS, guaranteeing that exclusion requests are immediately enforceable across the regulated ecosystem.
Players within the licensed environment also retain access to deposit limits, time-outs and structured cooling-off mechanisms. These controls, BAGO argues, are only effective when applied within a regulated framework where compliance can be supervised by the Belgian Gambling Commission (BGC).
BAGO warned that the expansion of unlicensed operators undermines national player protection objectives. “When players migrate to illegal sites, all safeguards disappear. There is no monitoring, no intervention and no accountability,” the association noted.
For quite some time, Belgian policy has placed a particular emphasis on improving channelisation towards licensed operators – for the BGC, this has meant increased regulatory action against unregulated platforms and the promotion of a competitive market.
The association has indicated support for establishing a ‘common minimum protection baseline’ across all licensed operators to avoid fragmentation of standards.
Gambling operators have forced to undertake successive years of hardened compliance changes, with regard to record penalties by the Gambling Commission, the enforcement of a mandatory €200 weekly cap on online gambling accounts – adopted via amendments of the Royal Decree of 2022.
In positioning the initiative, BAGO made clear that it views a harmonised Duty of Care as an essential component to safeguarding the credibility of Belgium’s regulated market. By embedding Duty of Care structurally within customer operations, rather than treating it as a compliance add-on, is presented as a defining principle of the initiative.
The Charter also emphasises internal governance. Operators must demonstrate clear procedures, staff training and escalation protocols to ensure consistency in how player risks are assessed and managed.
