Belgium Gambling Regulation - Casino Laws in Belgium

I've gotten in a fair share of spats over the past few weeks about Bethesda their business practices and the outrage surrounding them. A trend that I've noticed is someone will say "Bethesda deserved to get hate" and I'll respond "But do they deserve the amount of hate they get compared to the rest of the industry?" I don't think I've ever gotten a proper response back. It seems the 2 sides are talking past each other from different angles, so addressing that can help people understand that different perspective and be more critical of their reactions. So, let's compare; How does Bethesda's actions stack up to the rest of the industry?

I'll start on the mild side and get progressively worse as we go, so stick around to the end. It's gonna be fun kids!

Remember when Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford shoved, angrily texted and "rage fired" the company vice president/voice actor for Clap Trap? Or when he stored important company documents on a flashdirve along with squirt porn? That he then left at a midevil themed restaurant? ^{This isn't even the worst stuff tied to him by the way, only the stuff that's been confirmed. The allegations get much, much worse.}
Remember when Sony refused to host console mods after Bethesda finished developing the framework for it?
Remember when Konami fired Kojima, refused to let him accept an award and canned Silent Hills?
Remember when Bioware just gave up on Athem's content roadmap?
Remember Nintendo's abuse of the YouTube copyright system leading to mass fraudulent claims and take-downs?
Remember how Ubisoft has been selling XP boosters for offline games, essentially admitting their games are too grindy and not worth playing without further payment?
Remember when Chucklefish Games used unpaid minors to do hundreds of hours of work through coercion, bullying and exploitation? And again; didn't pay them for their work? ^{Jesus Christ, not even the indie market is free from this shit...}
Remember when a Rockstar founder nonchalantly described 100 hour work weeks for its developers? Also how Rockstar puts its devs through 100 work weeks?
Remember how Epic Games uses Fortnite for manufactured social pressure to manipulate and sell cosmetics to children?
Remember when 2K games just blatantly embraced gambling with shit like literal slot machines and pachinko with their NBA series?
Remember when Tencent/Epic Games used its launcher and ridiculous amounts of money to undercut Steam with exclusivity rights in an ongoing attempt to strong-arm the PC marketplace?
Remember when TellTale games shutdown randomly while in the middle of several projects without notifying the employees until the day of? An act that was illegal and is the subject of an ongoing lawsuit?
Remember when TakeTwo used British tax loopholes to avoid paying any taxes for Rockstar North for 10 years while also claiming $51,000,000 in subsidiaries? Or when Activision Blizzard used tax schemes to avoid paying taxes, resulting in a $1,100,000,000 total of back taxes and potential fines from the UK, Sweden and France?
Remember when EA broke Belgium's gambling laws to illegally sell loot boxes to children with the FIFA series?
Remember Bullfrog Productions? Remember Westwood Studios? Remember Origin Systems? Remember Playfish? Remember Black Box Games? Remember Dreamworks Interactive? Remember Phenomic Games Development? Remember NuFX? Remember Pandemic Studios? Remember Victory Games? Remember Mythic Entertainment? Remember Maxis Software? Remember EA Salt Lake? Remember Visceral Games?
Remember when EA and Bioware created one of the most damaging and toxic work environments on the planet when developing Anthem? To the point where employees would routinely have to take weeks or months of leave for the sake of their mental health? Where breakdowns and crying the studio closets were a common occurrence? Where people's breakdowns were described as "stress casualties", a term used almost exclusively for the military?
Remember when Activision reported record quarter profits? Then fired 800 employees and immediately refilled many of those positions at reduced pay?

Remember the direct harm most of these caused people? Remember the amount of rage and backlash each of these generated? Now remember the amount of rage Fallout First caused? Do they stack up?
Before people disagree with me, I'd like to remind you I haven't actually made any explicit argument here. I just pointed to Bethesda, pointed to the industry, then back to Bethesda. The argument makes itself.

The industry is toxic to its core. The corporate system and structures that run it is toxic to its core. Bethesda and everything I just listed are symptoms, not the problems themselves.

I think I know why a EU version hasn't been confirmed yet:

Belgium bans loot boxes

A victory for gamers: EA surrenders to Belgium loot box gambling laws

Any other people from Belgium here pretty angry about the gambling law?

NBA 2K19 will cut certain features from the MyTeam mode in Belgium and The Netherlands in order to not violate local gambling laws.

How did Psyonix communicate with and treat the affected players, when they disabled opening crates in Belgium and the Netherlands to comply with the gambling laws?

09-24 00:24 - 'EA is operating an online gambling bussiness, but denies doing so and thus refuses to operate under the gambling law of belgium. So their only remaining option is to ban Belgian users from accesing the inline casino...' by /u/FlyingBeerWizard removed from /r/belgium within 270-280min

09-24 00:26 - 'they didn't ban them, ea just doesn't wanna follow our gambling law so they would rather not sell you the game' by /u/sparkierjones removed from /r/belgium within 375-385min

Square Enix pulls 3 mobile games in Belgium because their loot boxes break the law on gambling

Belgium declares Lootboxes gambling, against the law. Valve could be fined, games banned, or 5 years prison time.

Chests in videogames are recognized as gambling in Belgium and goes under the laws. Your opinion? Consequences for Smite?

Gambling Laws Force NBA 2K18 Changes In Belgium And Netherlands

Has there been any word from Psyonix on how they're going to change the gambling in their game now that some EU countries are cracking down on it? Rocket League's gambling in its current state is/will be illegal under Dutch law, and other countries like Belgium are following suit.

The games publisher Square Enix is pulling three mobile games from Belgium following the introduction of a law in the European nation that bans “loot boxes” as a form of gambling.

This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 52%. (I'm a bot)

The games publisher Square Enix is pulling three mobile games from Belgium following the introduction of a law in the European nation that bans "Loot boxes" as a form of gambling.
The games - Mobius Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts Union X and Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia - are some of largest titles in the publisher's mobile roster, although it is better known for its console games such as Tomb Raider, Final Fantasy and Hitman.
In statements posted in the games, Square Enix confirmed that the new law was to blame for their removal, citing "The present uncertain legal status of 'loot boxes' under Belgian law" in a statement posted on the games.
The country's gaming commission ruled that the mechanics, as implemented in three popular games - Overwatch, Fifa 18 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive - were in violation of gambling legislation.
Other games have been similarly hit by the law, with the developers of popular online RPG Guild Wars 2 removing real-money purchases from the game back in September.
The economics of free-to-play mobile games, such as those pulled by Square Enix, means that they often feature no monetisation elements beyond loot boxes, leaving little reason for publishers to support them in the absence of the pseudo-gambling feature.

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Stocks, Options & Taxes - a guide

Ho!
Given the recent stock frenzy, many of you may have made some quick gains on some stock trades. I was in a similar situation, had a hard time finding any exact answers, had to consult a tax attorney in the end. I'll write up what I know, feel free to add to it or correct me if I'm wrong.
The basics
Belgium does not have capitals gains tax (applying to Belgian tax residents only), if the investment is done as a private person, managing his/hethe families assets, within 'normal' limits.
However, some of investments could be considered speculative, potentially triggering a 33% + municipality rate capital gains tax. (Different from the 2016 speculative gains tax on stocks, abolished in 2017).
What counts as speculative and what is 'normal' portfolio management is a gray area and can be strongly debated. I will address it further below.
Speculative taxes, if applied, would be for the realized profits for the calendar year (from January 1 to end of the year). Realized profits/losses are calculated over your closed positions (profit/loss = your sell price - buy price). Open positions (even they are shorts, for which you got premium) do not count towards your realized profits.
There are no deductibles: if you lost money last year, you can't carry it over for this year; you can't deduct any other expenses from these losses either;
'Normal' limits
For what is considered 'normal' portfolio management strategies, you will find plenty of debate/examples of this on this forum, I recommend you read up.
What is known to be safe, is buy&hold type strategies, ETFs, staying away from risky assets (crypto, options, turbos,..), not putting ALL your portfolio on one big gamble, no day-trading, automated trading, frequent daily buys/sells, etc.
But what if you mostly hold ETFs, but buy the occasional long-dated call options? Gray area. Who knows. Debatable. Would you be taxed speculatively for your options winning only, or also for the ETFs part of your profits? Again, no one knows, but probably it could be reasonably argued the former .
How do you pay the taxman?
Luckily, it is not your responsibility to keep track of speculative/not speculative gains, but that of the tax authorities. It is up to them to prove you engaged in speculative investment behavior. When this happens, you will be contacted by the tax authorities asking for further information, account & trading history, etc. You would get a warning of sorts to know something is up and maybe it's time to involve a professional to help you justify your investments.
Be ready that they can/could come knocking on your door several years later. Have your transaction history/backups, just in case. But there are no fines or interest penalties, just a matter of debating with the fiscus how much you owe them.
Enforcement
In a typical Belgian twist, while taxes on speculative gains are harsh, enforcement/followup is lacking. I was told that it is very unlikely that anyone would get audited. People making mid six figures get away unchecked. And if you make that kind of money, be smart, and consider supporting the local tax attorney community, they are people too.
EDIT: By law, it is up to the tax office to prove/seek further proof you are dealing with speculative investments. They might or might not follow up with you. While your brokebank does not share with them for example stocks/options trading history, there are other things that can be red flags for the tax office: suddenly 200.000 shows up in your bank account, you hold foreign bank/brokerage accounts, there's a lot of monthly money transfers back and forth, you suddenly form a low-tax LLC in Cyprus, etc.
The average Joe (or Jan?) is unlikely to be audited (and please no one interpret this as it can't/won't happen either).
Advanced ruling
This is relatively costly (EDIT: free, if you do it yourself) and tedious procedure that helps get a binding decision from the tax authorities regarding a deal you made, a particular transaction, etc. So if you made mad money on a single transaction, it might be worth the effort. If you made a lot of smaller trades, you would need to do this individually - not worth it.
The other downside of an advanced ruling is that it lists a strict set of conditions: if you did A, B and C under circumstances X and Y, then this or that is allowed. Any small change to A, B, C, X or Y can make the advanced ruling unapplicable.
Summary
You made good money? Be happy, keep the potential tax amount around in case they do come for you, and if you don't get audited/asked additional info/transaction statements/etc, you're probably fine. Talk to a tax attorney if you can't sleep at night.
The BEFire community is doing a great job at promoting a fairly safe, low-tax, low-risk investment strategy. But if you do end up taking the more adventurous route, you might as well be informed on what to expect.

belgium gambling laws video

Luckily, Belgium made online gambling legal in 2011 when they passed the Belgian Gambling Act. This piece of legislation laid out the rules on how online gambling operations can gain permission from the Belgian government to offer access to their residents. Belgian gambling laws treat casinos like a private club and members must be at least 21 years old to get in. Online wagering sites must take strict and thorough measures to verify both the age and identity of their clients. Sites take this quite seriously because licenses are so hard to get in they don’t want to jeopardize their operations. Does Belgium Tax Gambling Winnings? Up until 2011, however, there were no laws that regulated the country’s online gambling market. That year, lawmakers in the country passed the Belgian Gambling Act. This allows foreign gaming companies to legally operate in Belgium after obtaining a license from the government. Belgium’s gambling laws differed from many other countries. Video game loot boxes declared illegal under Belgium gambling laws. Published 26 April 2018. Share. close. Share page. Copy link. About sharing. image copyright Getty Images. image caption Fifa 18 ... All terrestrial and virtual gambling activities in Belgium are strictly overseen and controlled by the local regulatory body, Kansspelcommissie, or the Belgium Gaming Commission. The latter is tasked with multiple responsibilities, including approving and issuing licenses to gambling operators. Of course, the regulatory body keeps a sharp eye on the operations of its licensees. In case of any violations, the regulator has the mandate to suspend or even revoke the violators’ permits. Belgium Bulgaria Croatia Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany Italy Netherlands Poland Romania Spain UK: Antigua and Barbuda Guadeloupe Martinique Panama Saint-Barthélemy Saint-Martin Virgin Islands (USA) Falkland Islands French Guiana: French Polynesia New Caledonia Wallis and Futuna Islands: These countries use the most competent approach to online gambling regulation. Each operator ... A Q&A guide to gaming in Belgium. For private operators, the most important law is the Gaming Act. While online games of chance were not regulated before 2011, the Gaming Act was modified in 2010 to adopt a strict licensing regime for online games of chance and bets. Gambling law in Belgium (ICLG 2019) Posted by: Bart Van den Brande . Labels: advertisement @en, consumer protection, Europees ... as amended by the two laws of January 10, 2010) are regulated by the Gaming Commission. This includes all gambling and betting activities. Matters that fall outside the scope of this law, due to the fact that they are not considered games of chance, are: promotional ... Belgium: Gambling Laws and Regulations 2021. ICLG - Gambling Laws and Regulations - Belgium covers common issues in gambling laws and regulations – including relevant authorities and legislation, application for a licence, licence restrictions, digital media, enforcement and liability – in 37 jurisdictions. The Belgian Gaming Commission is competent to monitor illegal gambling in Belgium and to take subsequent action. 12 It adopts a stringent approach with regard to illegal offshore gambling operators directing their activities to Belgian residents. The powers of the Gaming Commission are very broad. It can issue warnings against illegal operators but also issue administrative fines. 13 In the ...

Belgium Gambling Regulation - Casino Laws in Belgium

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Video game loot boxes are declared illegal under Belgium gambling laws (& other countries)

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Video game loot boxes declared illegal under Belgium gambling laws. Jagex, do you comply?

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[Tech] - Video game loot boxes declared illegal under Belgium gambling laws

On the topic of Belgium: AKA, how will Fate/Grand Order will comply to their gambling laws in order to get their game over there?

Outrage, harm and how Bethesda compares to the industry