Dagbladwinkel may no longer offer bets for a year because the customer has gambled more than 15,000 euros in three hours (Waregem)

It was the customer himself – who was no longer allowed to place bets due to a gambling addiction – who filed a complaint against the daily newspaper shop in Waregem.

According to the gambler, he could have placed bets for no less than 15,000 euros in just over three hours in the newsagent. That amount is 75 times more than the legal amount allowed for such a newsagent. According to the law, a customer can gamble a maximum of 200 euros per day.

According to the manager, the customer threatened him, but that could not be proven.

The manager – who declined to comment – ​​now sees his license suspended for a year by the Gaming Commission to be able to offer bets in his newsagent. The suspension went into effect at the beginning of this month and will run until the end of March 2023.

The operator tried to cancel the withdrawal of his gambling license through the Council of State. According to the man, as a result, he will lose twenty percent of his income for a year, there is a risk that due to his lower income he will have to fire a staff member and also not be able to repay a loan. However, that was to no avail.

‘sideline activity’

The sheer scale of newsagent gambling has been the subject of much discussion since the announced takeover of some 170 Bpost newsagents by gambling company Golden Palace. According to Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne (Open VLD), some newsagents now gamble around 4 million euros annually. However, this additional activity for newsagents was regarded by the legislator as a “sideline activity”, because the sale of newspapers, weeklies and cigarettes in newsagents had fallen sharply.

ALSO READ. Selling newspapers is now an afterthought: in 1 in 5 newsagents more than 250,000 euros per year is gambled

Therefore, stricter rules have recently been announced. For example, in newsagents, gambling is only allowed if they sell enough newspapers and weeklies. After all, more and more fake newspaper shops popped up, where gambling was mainly done. From now on, no more than 250,000 euros can be gambled per year in newspaper shops. “We can no longer accept newsagents to become hidden gambling palaces,” said Van Quickenborne.

According to figures from the Gaming Commission, up to now, around 175 million euros have been gambled through the newsagents.

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