Belgium’s regulated online gambling market generated €965 million in gross gaming revenue (GGR) in 2025, up 5.4% on 2024, while the number of first-time players fell 43.1% in the first full year after the country raised its minimum gambling age from 18 to 21.
The figures come from the 2025 annual report of the Belgian Gaming Commission (Kansspelcommissie, KSC). New players dropped from 193,342 in 2024 to 110,032 in 2025, a fall of 83,310. The age increase took effect on 1 September 2024.
Before the change, people aged 21 to 29 made up the largest group of new players, according to the KSC. Online GGR still grew in 2025 as sign-ups from new players fell.
Online grows, land-based shrinks
Online now accounts for 59% of Belgium’s regulated gambling market. Land-based revenue fell 7% to €656.09 million in 2025. Together, the two channels produced around €1.62 billion in GGR last year, and the 5.4% online growth implies an increase of roughly €49 million on 2024 (TGE calculation based on KSC figures).
The decline was uneven across the retail segments:
- Casinos: €152.29 million, up 5.85%
- Cafés with gaming machines: €196.01 million, down 17.77%
- Gaming arcades: down 4.17%
Footfall fell faster than revenue. Average daily visits to physical venues dropped 24.5% to 27,532.
Online activity moved the other way. The KSC recorded an average of 160,144 daily active online users in 2025, up 3%, and 528,706 unique individuals gambled online at least once during the year.
Self-exclusion register keeps growing
The Excluded Persons Information System (EPIS), Belgium’s national self-exclusion and access register, held 66,998 voluntary exclusions at the end of 2025, up from 56,458 a year earlier. That is an increase of 10,540, or 18.7%.
The KSC received 16,358 exclusion requests during 2025, and 76% of them were submitted digitally. The register blocked 715,373 attempts to access gambling services over the year.
Since 1 May 2025, operators have been required to check every customer against EPIS before granting access to gambling services.
The regulator also reported that operators have had to submit quarterly financial data digitally since 2024, and that it appointed a full-time employee to its Financial Control unit in December 2025.
Operators point to the black market
The Belgian Association of Gaming Operators (BAGO), which represents licensed operators, responded to the report by focusing on unlicensed competition. It cited survey data on young adults, a group the age rule now partly bars from the legal market.
“The fact that 28 per cent 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 said.
The group called on KSC chair Magali Clavie to set out a direct response that protects consumers and licence holders. BAGO wants the regulator strengthened, the government to keep a visible legal offering in place, and enforcement to target illegal providers and the financial flows behind them.
The annual report does not set out a specific KSC strategy for the illegal market.
Other markets have moved against payments. Brazil has ordered banks to block illegal betting accounts within 24 hours, the type of measure BAGO is pressing Belgium to prioritise.
What comes next
The 2025 data covers the first full year under the age-21 rule and the first eight months of mandatory EPIS checks on every customer. The 2026 report will show whether the new-player figure stabilises at the lower level or keeps falling.
For licensed operators, growth now depends on a smaller, older and more closely checked customer base. For the KSC, the pressure from BAGO is to show that players aged 18 to 20, who can no longer gamble legally, are not moving to unlicensed sites in large numbers.
Source: Kansspelcommissie
