Gambling addiction help in Belgium

Verified helplines

Helplines and online chat

0800 35 777 - SOS Gokken in Dutch, SOS Jeux in French - is free and open 24/7, and is the number the Gaming Commission puts on its own pages.

Belgium's other services split by language, which is worth knowing before you dial:

• De DrugLijn on 078 15 10 20 takes questions about alcohol, drugs, pills, gaming and gambling. Free, Monday to Friday 10:00-20:00, with chat from 12:00 to 18:00 and email.
• gokhulp.be is free, anonymous and available around the clock in Dutch and French: information, self-tests, a self-help programme that runs 3 to 12 weeks depending on what you choose, online counselling with a professional through secure chat, and anonymous peer forums.
• joueurs.aide-en-ligne.be is the French-language programme, run by asbl Le Pélican in Brussels and accredited by COCOF. Free and anonymous, with chat with psychologists, self-assessment, debt information and support for relatives; the office number is 02 502 08 61.

Self-exclusion

EPIS - the Excluded Persons Information System - is an electronic database the Gaming Commission has run since 2004. Before granting access, casinos (class I), gaming halls (class II) and betting operators, in venues and online alike, must enter the player's surname, first name and date of birth and check them against EPIS. The legal basis for a voluntary ban is Article 54 §3.1 of the Act of 7 May 1999 on games of chance.

To exclude yourself, complete the Commission's ban application form and send it in with a copy of both sides of your identity card. The form asks you to add anything that helps identification - other nationalities, alternative spellings of your names - because the check runs on name and date of birth, so a variant spelling is a hole in the block. The declaration you sign is a request for a ban on access to class I and class II gaming establishments and betting shops, real and online.

You are not the only one who can trigger it. An interested third party such as a partner may submit an exclusion request; courts order exclusions, for example for people in a collective debt settlement; a provisional administrator may request a preventive ban for a protected person by ordinary post; and magistrates, notaries, bailiffs and police officers are listed automatically.

The Commission does not publish a fixed duration for a voluntary ban on its public pages, and lifting one runs through a separate procedure with the Commission rather than with a casino. If the timing matters to your decision, ask them directly on 02 504 00 40 before you send the form. Our comparison of self-exclusion schemes by country sets EPIS against the German and Dutch registers.

Blocking gambling payments and sites

Belgium caps online play at the level of the player: a maximum of €200 per week per player. That is a legal ceiling on licensed sites, not a personal budget - you can set your own limit lower with the operator, and should.

For access itself, the Gaming Commission lists blocking software on its own help pages, naming BetBlocker as free and Gamban and GamBlock as paid. Install one on every device before you need it, not during an urge; our guide to apps that block gambling sites covers the differences and the failure modes. Licensed operators carry the Commission's "Always Play Legally" logo, which is the quickest way to tell whether the site you are on is inside the Belgian system at all.

Free treatment and counselling

The two online services - gokhulp.be and joueurs.aide-en-ligne.be - are free and anonymous, and both go beyond information: gokhulp.be runs a structured self-help programme of 3 to 12 weeks and online counselling with a professional, and joueurs.aide-en-ligne.be lets you work through the programme alone or with a psychologist, whichever you decide.

For in-person help, the Gaming Commission publishes a list of services by province and marks with an asterisk those that specialise in gambling addiction - worth using, because a general addiction service and a gambling-specialised one are not the same appointment. There is also a Dutch-language online programme with six modules at stopgokken.gokkliniek.be, which includes advice for relatives.

If money is the emergency, the Commission points to the OCMW / CPAS, the Centrum Algemeen Welzijnswerk (CAW) and budgetwijzer.be for debt and budget help. What to do about gambling debt covers the sequence.

Support for family and friends

A partner or other interested third party can submit an EPIS exclusion request for someone else, and a provisional administrator can request a preventive ban for a person under protection. Relatives can also use the free services directly: De DrugLijn takes questions from anyone, joueurs.aide-en-ligne.be has a strand for the entourage, and gokhulp.be is open anonymously.

How to help someone with a gambling problem covers the conversation and the money boundaries; signs of a gambling problem covers what you are seeing.

Gambling law and the regulator

The regulator is the Gaming Commission (Kansspelcommissie / Commission des jeux de hasard), operating under the Act of 7 May 1999 on games of chance, bets, gaming establishments and the protection of players. Its own statement of the age rule is unambiguous: you can only take part in games of chance or betting from the age of 21. That is higher than in most of Europe, where 18 is standard.

Legal gambling in Belgium runs through licensed casinos, slot machine halls, cafés, betting shops, betting websites, newspaper outlets and horse racing associations, online and offline, all carrying the "Always Play Legally" logo. The helplines directory lists lines outside Belgium.