The federal government’s attempt to protect gamblers with a playing limit from themselves appears to be a blow in the water. The intention was to impose a maximum limit on gamblers of 200 euros per week and per gambling site. It turns out: in just over a year, 228,918 gamblers have already increased the playing limit themselves, according to figures from the Gaming Commission. That’s what ‘Het Nieuwsblad’ writes today.
Increasing the limit is not difficult: gamblers can simply ask the gambling companies. According to Marjolein De Paepe of the Gaming Commission, all these players are monitored monthly. “If it turns out that they are suddenly known as defaulters, the limit increase will be withdrawn. That is the case for about 0.4 percent.”
This measure would be easier to enforce than the previous limit of 500 euros per week, across the various legal gambling sites.
Bram Constandt, gambling expert at Ghent University, is shocked by the figure 228,918. “That is really a huge number. It proves once again that the Gaming Commission must monitor much more closely whether gambling companies do not motivate players to remove the playing limit.”
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