Since October 2022, a Belgian player may not pay more than two hundred euro a week into an online gambling site. The measure is real, it applies to every licensed operator, and few European countries track deposits this closely.
It is also widely misunderstood. Many players believe it caps what they stake, and the press itself regularly writes “two hundred euro in stakes”. That is not what the text says.
Here is what the cap covers exactly, what it does not, and what the 2022 decree changed without many people noticing.
Deposit limit or stake limit: what the cap covers
The Gaming Commission is explicit on this point.
The cap applies to the amounts you transfer into your account, and not to your stakes in games or bets. You can pay in two hundred euro, win, stake your winnings again and play a great deal more without breaching anything.
Nor does the cap touch what you win: winnings are neither limited nor, in principle, taxed. That exemption rests on a weaker text than most people think, as I explain in tax on casino winnings.
The period matters just as much. These are not two hundred euro per calendar week but over seven rolling days: a Tuesday deposit weighs until the following Tuesday, not until Sunday. Someone paying in a hundred on Monday and a hundred on Thursday is at the cap until Thursday.
The Commission adds a recommendation nobody repeats: do not spend more than five per cent of your income on gambling. The legal cap is a maximum, not a target.
What counts towards the 200 euro, and what does not
The distinction between depositing and staking has concrete consequences, and they are written down nowhere.
Winnings you stake again do not count. They never left your gaming account, so they are not a deposit. A player who doubles a stake and plays the balance again uses none of the cap.
Winnings you withdraw and then pay back in do count. As soon as an amount moves from your bank account to your gaming account, it is a deposit like any other, whatever its origin.
The size of the payment makes no difference either. Even a €10 minimum deposit, the most common threshold on the Belgian market, counts towards the cap, and five deposits of €10 weigh exactly as much as a single one of €50.
The question of bonuses does not arise in Belgium: casino bonuses have been banned there since March 2020. The mechanisms that replaced them do not pass through your bank account and therefore do not eat into the cap.
What the 2022 decree quietly removed
The amount came down, and that is what people remember. What disappeared at the same time went unnoticed.
The previous limit, set at five hundred euro, applied under the wording of the time “to all games of chance and bets in which he takes part”. It was global: five hundred euro for a player’s entire activity, across all sites.
The royal decree of 19 June 2022 lowered the amount to two hundred euro and removed those words. The cap thus became specific to each site.
On paper, protection tightened. In practice, a player registered on three sites now has six hundred euro a week where the earlier framework blocked five hundred. The per-site threshold fell, the theoretically reachable total rose.
No operator has anything to do with this: they apply a text whose scope changed. And the Belgian market holds enough licensed sites for the question to matter.
Being registered with several operators is not forbidden, by the way: I have set out what the law and the contracts say about holding accounts at several online casinos.
The 200 euro limit on sports betting
Many assume the two worlds fall under different rules. They do not.
The Commission devotes a page of frequently asked questions to online betting, and repeats there word for word the rule applied to casinos: two hundred euro a week per site. A betting site under an F1+ licence therefore counts exactly like a casino site under an A+ or B+ licence.
The mechanism is the same, the seven-day period too, and so is the derogation procedure. There is no separate regime for sports or horse betting.
How to increase your deposit limit, and why it takes time
This is the most useful asymmetry to know, and it works in your favour.
To go below two hundred euro, you simply ask the operator. It is a right, the new limit applies immediately, and no justification is required.
To go above it, the route is entirely different. The request goes through the operator, who passes it to the Commission. The Commission then consults the file the National Bank keeps on personal credit, and permission is granted only to those who do not appear there as defaulters.
The check does not stop at approval. The Commission periodically reviews the situation of players whose limit has been raised, and the cap returns automatically to two hundred euro as soon as a default appears.
One point often escapes people: you cannot contact the National Bank yourself. Every request goes through the Commission, the only body empowered to grant a derogation.
What this cap does not protect
This has to be said plainly, because the mechanism is often presented as a guarantee.
The cap sees only deposits, never losses. It sees one site at a time. And no operator knows what you do at the others.
What does see the whole picture is the EPIS register: it applies to all licensed operators at once, and it is the only Belgian mechanism that does. I have explained how you go on it and how you come off.
If you want a genuinely global cap, one method exists today: voluntarily lower your limit on every site where you hold an account. All Belgian protection mechanisms work this way, which is both their limit and their value.
Frequently asked questions
Does the 200 euro limit apply to my stakes or my deposits?
To your deposits. The Commission states that the cap applies to amounts transferred into your account, not to the sums staked.
Do my winnings count towards the limit?
Only if you withdraw them and pay them back in. Winnings staked again directly never left your gaming account and are therefore not a deposit.
Is the limit the same for sports betting?
Yes, exactly the same. Two hundred euro a week per site, whether the site is a casino under an A+ or B+ licence or a betting site under an F1+ licence.
Over how many days is the limit calculated?
Over seven rolling days, not the calendar week. A Tuesday deposit weighs until the following Tuesday.
How do you increase a deposit limit?
Through the operator, who passes the request to the Commission. It checks with the National Bank that you are not registered as a defaulter. You cannot make this request yourself.
Can you lower your limit?
Yes, at any time and without justification. The request goes directly to the operator and takes effect immediately.
What happens if I am registered after obtaining a derogation?
Your cap returns to two hundred euro. The Commission periodically reviews the situation of players whose limit has been raised.
Sources
- What is the gambling limit per week for online gambling, Belgian Gaming Commission, for the scope of the cap, the banking check and the 5 % recommendation
- Frequently asked questions on online betting, Belgian Gaming Commission
- Royal decree of 19 June 2022 lowering the weekly limit from 500 to 200 euro.
Amounts and procedures may change; the regulator’s published text always takes precedence over this page. This article describes a rule, recommends no operator and contains no commercial link.
Three years in iGaming, focused on licensed casinos in Belgium. I write every CasinAudit page myself and check each figure against an official source.