By Arthur D – Published 14 September 2026 | Updated 14 October 2026
On a Belgian casino, the menu offers two separate entries: dice games on one side, dice slots on the other. Two sections, two libraries, and no explanation at all.
The site asks you to choose without telling you what sets them apart. The difference is not cosmetic: one leaves you no decision, the other forces one on you every round.
I looked into where that split comes from, and the answer sits in a 2004 royal decree nobody quotes. It reverses the story usually told about these games.
The dice slot: three to five dice thrown on a screen
It is the most widespread format, and the one almost always described the wrong way round.
How it works is immediate. Dice appear on screen, a combination forms or it does not, and the payout follows a table you can consult before playing. You set your stake, you start, the result lands.
You have no decision to take. The pace is quick, the rule is understood in one round, and the return to player is generally displayed, so you know where you stand before staking.
It is commonly described as a slot machine adapted to dice. It is precisely the opposite, and I come back to that below.
The dice game: a grid, points, a choice every round
That format exists almost nowhere outside Belgium, and it is a game in its own right.
The principle changes from the first round. You receive dice in columns, and you choose how to spread them across three-by-three grids. The rows you form, horizontally, vertically or diagonally, earn points.
It is the running total that determines your win, not a line of matching symbols. Most of these games set a threshold, often one hundred points, below which the round pays nothing. Filling an entire grid with identical dice triggers a bonus, to which a multiplier may be added.
Your placement genuinely counts. Two players receiving exactly the same dice can finish on different totals, which is strictly impossible on a dice slot.
Do not overstate that room for manoeuvre, though. You decide where to put your dice, never which ones you get. The draw remains chance, and placement only makes the most of what chance handed you. It is a difference in comfort, not an edge over the house.
The dice operators I have audited
The seven sites whose documents I read offer both formats, each in its own section. The question is what they tell you about them before you open an account: are the studios identifiable, is the return to player displayed, can you try in demo mode?
Those questions carry ten points in my grid, and that is what I rank them on here, not the size of the catalogue. Each of my examinations works through the seven criteria.
What Belgian law says about dice games
This is where the usual explanation falls apart.
A royal decree of 26 April 2004 sets out the list of automatic games of chance permitted in class II venues, meaning gaming arcades. It keeps five categories: black-jack, races, dice, poker and roulette. Slot machines are not among them.
The same text defines a die in article 2, as a small cube whose six faces carry one to six spots, Arabic numerals or Chinese numerals.
The article that reverses the story
The decisive passage is article 5. It separates the mechanical dice game, where three to five dice turn inside a drum, from the electronic dice game. And it describes the latter as a screen on which three, four or five dice are thrown, depending on the version, the aim being to achieve a predetermined combination.
That is the exact description of a dice slot, written in 2004.
A dice slot is therefore not a slot machine dressed in dice to get around a ban. It is the dice game as Belgian law defines it, and it is permitted for that reason. The placement grid came later, as an elaboration of that framework.
The order everyone recounts is back to front.
And the decoration decides nothing
The legislator even anticipated the confusion. In article 7, on roulette, it states that using dice changes nothing about the nature of the game, which remains a roulette-type game.
Putting dice on a roulette does not make it a dice game. What determines the category is the mechanics, never the symbols on display.
Why only Belgian sites offer them
A B+ licence extends a B licence, that of automatic gaming arcades. The online catalogue therefore follows the categories permitted for those venues, dice games among them.
Classic slot machines fall under casinos, so under A+ licences, of which there are nine. I have set out what each licence class permits and what really separates them.
Studios have specialised within that framework. Finland’s Air Dice, present since the mid-2000s, and Belgium’s Gaming1 supply most of the market, each with its own mechanics.
One point deserves correcting in passing: these games do not exist in France not because dice are banned there, but because the French regulator permits no online slot machines of any kind.
Why every dice casino offers much the same
This is what surprises people most when they open several Belgian casinos in a row.
The most played titles turn up everywhere. Moving from one site to the next often means finding the same library under a different visual identity.
The reason is not commercial but structural. A small number of studios supplies the whole market, and several operators share the same technical platform: the fifty-eight Belgian authorisations fit into far fewer brand names than it seems.
The balance between the two formats does vary a great deal from site to site. Some operators built their catalogue around dice slots and offer only a handful of dice games; others do exactly the reverse. Nothing indicates it before you register, and that is the one catalogue difference worth examining.
Beyond that, the catalogue is not a basis for choosing. Comparing dice casinos on their games is like comparing supermarkets on the brands they all stock.
What really separates these sites
The ranking above rests on a single criterion, and it is not enough to choose on. If the catalogue does not separate them, what remains is mainly what happens once you have won.
Payment times, recourse in a dispute, the clarity of the terms, the way a complaint is handled: those are the only points where Belgian sites genuinely differ. And they differ far more than people imagine.
That is what I examine document by document, against the seven points that make an online casino reliable. The gap between the times announced on the commercial page and what the terms permit is particularly telling, and I have recorded it at every Belgian operator.
One last point, touching the mechanics of these games. A dice slot runs fast and a dice game slower, but neither changes what you may deposit: the weekly cap applies whatever the game.
What players ask most
What is the difference between a dice slot and a dice game?
The dice slot throws three to five dice on a screen and pays on a predetermined combination: you have nothing to decide. The dice game is played on grids where you place your dice to form rows and build up points. Sites file them in two separate sections.
Is a dice slot a disguised slot machine?
No, and it is the other way round. The 2004 royal decree describes the electronic dice game as a screen on which three, four or five dice are thrown to achieve a predetermined combination. The dice slot matches that legal definition; it does not circumvent it.
Why do dice games exist almost only in Belgium?
Because Belgian law ranks them among the five categories permitted in gaming arcades, alongside black-jack, races, poker and roulette. Since a B+ licence extends a B licence, the online catalogue follows those categories.
Do dice games require strategy?
Placement is decided, the draw is not. Your choice affects the point total reached, but you have no hold over the dice you receive. It is real room for manoeuvre, not to be confused with an edge over the house.
Do Belgian dice casinos offer the same games?
The most played titles, yes. A small number of studios supplies the whole market and several operators share the same platform. The balance between dice slots and dice games, however, varies sharply from site to site.
Does a dice game pay more than a dice slot?
Nothing supports that claim. Both formats show return rates specific to each game, and those rates vary more within a format than between the two. Compare game by game, not category by category.
Can you try a dice game without depositing money?
Yes, at operators offering a demo mode, and that is one of the points I check in my grid. It lets you discover the mechanics of a dice game, which take a few rounds to grasp. The tools for keeping a grip on your play remain useful afterwards.
How do I know whether a Belgian casino offers dice games?
Look at its licence class. A site under a B+ licence necessarily offers them, since that is one of the categories its originating venue is permitted to run. A+ holders may offer them too, alongside the rest, and the comparison of sites licensed in Belgium states the class of each.
Sources and limits
- Royal decree of 26 April 2004 establishing the list of automatic games of chance permitted in class II gambling venues, articles 1, 2, 5, 7 and 8, published in the Belgian Official Gazette of 4 May 2004 (published in French and Dutch only)
- Public register of B+ authorisations, held by the Belgian Gaming Commission
- Game sections and contractual documents of the sites I went through
The 2004 decree governs physical class II venues; online play falls under separate provisions, and the correspondence between the two catalogues follows from a B+ licence extending a B licence. This page describes game formats, not libraries: catalogues change and the balance varies from site to site. The scores here cover a single criterion of my grid; each operator’s overall score is in its audit.
Three years in iGaming, focused on licensed casinos in Belgium. I write every CasinAudit page myself and check each figure against an official source.