Betway facing fine, further sanctions in Belgium over cumulative license and lack of transparency regarding its owners
The Belgian Gaming Commission has started a sanction procedure against online gambling operator Betway, local news outlet De Tijd reported Thursday citing information released by the gambling regulator.
Betway operates in Belgium in partnership with Casinos Austria International Belgium, which runs Grand Casino Brussels Viage Belgium. Under the country’s gambling law, international companies are required to enter partnership with a land-based operator in order to be granted a license for the operation of online gambling services.
The Belgian Gaming Commission has revealed that it has started a sanction procedure against the major Internet gambling company due to lack of transparency regarding its owners as well as the use of cumulative license.
Belgian gambling regulations prohibit a given company to hold licenses in more than one gambling category. Betway received its online gambling license in 2015 after clinching the Casinos Austria partnership. However, the Gaming Commission has discovered that a company affiliated with Betway had obtained a gambling manufacturer license from the regulator years ago.
The regulatory body opened its investigation into the gambling operator in November 2017 after De Tijd brought attention to the fact that little has been known about who exactly owns the group behind the Betway brand.
It should also be noted that the gaming and betting operator has a strong advertising presence in Belgium through strategic partnerships. The company sponsors the Croky Cup, known to be the country’s most prestigious football competition, as well as first division team RSC Anderlecht.
Little More Than a PO Box
Betway’s trouble with Belgian media and the local regulator started after the company was among those to be named in the so-called Paradise Papers, a leak of 13.4 million files from offshore service providers that threw light on the top end of the offshore finance world and on the lives of the rich and powerful.
Based on those files, De Tijd discovered that Betway’s Malta office in the town of Gzira was a nothing more than a PO address with a tiny nameplate next to a door leading into a shabby building. The Belgian news outlet also pointed out that little is known about Betway’s owners and the sources of money that flows into the company.
That combined with the use of a cumulative license could cost Betway a hefty fine, suspension or even termination of its license to operate in Belgium.
The gambling company’s spokesman Alan Alger has told local media that Betway was fully cooperative over the course of the Belgian Gaming Commission’s probe and provided answers to all of the regulator’s questions. Mr. Alger went on to say that they do not expect the company to be fined or penalized in any other way by the regulatory body.
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