The history of gambling in Belgium dates back to 1930. That was the year when the Knokke Casino opened its doors for the very first time. It didn’t take long for gambling to gain massive popularity among adults, and even though there aren’t many physical and online casinos in the country at the moment, betting is still one of the most favored forms of entertainment in Belgium.

In the following sections, we will deliver information regarding the first physical gambling house that was established in 1930. Additionally, we will focus our attention on the specifics in regard to the gambling laws in Belgium, and we’ll also present the most prominent casinos that are still operating today.

History of Gambling Houses in Belgium: Knokke Casino

As aforementioned, the very first casino in Belgium was built in 1930. Its construction began one year earlier. The person who came up with the idea for the establishment of the gambling house was Jozef Nellens, who operated the casino for four years. When Nellens passed away, his son took charge of the casino. During that time, the facility was open only for the summer.

After World War II, the popularity of the casino grew immensely, and the place became home to numerous exhibitions, operas, ballet performances, and concerts. Today, Knokke Casino is the most notable physical gambling house located in Belgium. Although the casino was constructed in 1930, the official legalization of gambling took place in 1999.

Legalization of Gambling in Belgium

The body that regulates and licenses all gambling activity in the country is the Belgian Gaming Commission. Unlike many other European countries, the legal gambling age in Belgium is 21 rather than 18. In order for a gambling house to be considered legal, it should hold one or more licenses depending on the activities offered in the respective physical casino.

Even though at the beginning of the gambling industry in Belgium, there was a limit regarding the number of gambling facilities that could operate in the country, nowadays, there’s no such thing. At present, there are more than 70 casinos and five operating racetracks.

The Oldest and Most Popular Casinos in Belgium

We have already stated that the oldest and probably the most notable casino in Belgium is the Knokke Casino, which is located in the town of Knokke. Besides it, however, there are many other wagering houses that are immensely popular not only for residents of the country but for many gambling enthusiasts from all around the world, as well.

Blankenberge Casino

Blankenberge Casino is one of the official casinos located in Belgium. It was founded in 1936, and over the years, it went through numerous reconstructions and renovations. Today, those who visit the gambling house can enjoy a game of blackjack, roulette, and poker. Additionally, the facility features numerous slot machines, as well as electronic roulette.

Grand Casino Chaudfontaine

Another prominent casino located in the country is Grand Casino Chaudfontaine. One of the most impressive things about this casino is the overall interior of the place. In addition to this, the gaming house offers a variety of products, including slot machines, poker, roulette, and many other forms of entertainment.

Grand Casino Brussels Viage

Grand Casino Brussels Viage surely is one of the largest physical casinos one can visit in Belgium. Like any other gambling house in the country, visitors of this one are also required to present a valid ID before entering the grounds of the casino. The six-floor building is awe-inspiring, and at present, it features more than 350 slot machines, approximately 40 table games, and a huge poker room for all fans of the game.

Legal Forms of Gambling in Belgium

Casinos that give visitors a chance to try out their luck with well-known games, such as roulette, blackjack, poker, and slots, are definitely well-liked among gamblers. However, betting at casinos is not the only form of wagering people like to diversity their everyday life with. For instance, a large deal of sports fans like visiting facilities that feature the so-called kiosks.

These machines are used in places where betting on sports is permitted. They allow customers to place wagers at any time without waiting in lines. Football is certainly the most prominent discipline when it comes to betting in Belgium, but there are many other additional markets people can choose between.

Luckily, residents of the country are also allowed to gamble online. We may all agree that this is the most convenient form of wagering since players have the opportunity to place bets at a time convenient for them. However, all online platforms offering such services should be related to facilities within the borders of Belgium to be considered legal.

Curious Facts about The Casinos Located in Belgium

Belgium is the country that homes some of the most beautiful casinos in the world. Not only do gamblers engage in a fun game of blackjack, but they also spend a fair amount of time staring at the breathtaking paintings on the walls. The Knokke Casino, for example, is known to be not only the first casino in Belgium but the one with the most beautiful interior, as well. Another interesting thing with respect to this casino is the fact that a number of events took place in the facility, including the Eurovision Song Contest and the Miss Belgium Contest.

I’m willing to bet however much you want that some of your absolute most beloved slots of all time are licensed – “The Avengers”, “South Park”, “Game of Thrones”, “Spider-Man”, “Gladiator”, “The Dark Knight”, “Aliens”, “Jurassic Park”, the list goes on and on and on. Licensed slots are absolutely fantastic, in every way. Sure, some of them are just cheap imitations of their source material with some popular brand name plastered on it, but most of them have a lot of effort and love put behind them. Developers know that the names will make people come, but it’s the games that will make them stay, and thus try their hardest to make their creations as enjoyable as possible. Licensed slots seem like a win-win-win situation, as the developers win more due to the brand recognition, the players get to experience a high-quality slot featuring the characters they know and love, and even the license holders get a share of the profits for doing absolutely nothing. But licensed slots, and licensed properties in general, have a pretty bad dark side, too, and it’s one whose effects we’re already seeing play out.

Today, Marvel announced that they’re shutting down two of their videogames – “Avengers Alliance” and “Avengers Alliance 2”. The former of those had been around for over four years now and had literally thousands of fans who payed millions in microtransactions in an attempt to support the game they enjoyed. The latter, while not nearly as well-received as its predecessor, still had quite a lot of loyal fans. That, of course, isn’t the first time Marvel/Disney have pulled their license from their games – currently, you are unable to legally buy most Marvel titles, such as the “Marvel vs Capcom” series or “X-Men Destiny” (the latter of which wasn’t very good, but still), and for years fan-favorites “Marvel Ultimate Alliance” (which inspired both “Avengers Alliance” and “Marvel Future Fight”) were also unavailable for purchase.

But hey, that’s just for videogames, right? The same thing can’t possibly happen to slots, can it? Oh, you bet your beautiful behind it can! In fact, it actually did. Have you ever wondered why you haven’t seen any new Marvel slots in the last few years? Or why the ones that exist aren’t featured as prominently on the front pages of your online casinos as they once were? Well, the secret lies, once again, in licensing issues. Marvel/Disney decided that gambling wasn’t family-friendly enough, and as such decided to pull their license from all of their deals with their casino partners (Playtech and Cryptologic). So chances are you’ll never see any more Marvel slots, ever – as a matter of fact, Playtech themselves jumped ship and are currently developing DC slots for Warner Bros. Thankfully, Marvel’s slots don’t have expiration dates… But what if other slots do? “Game of Thrones” is officially coming to an end in 2018 – what if HBO decides to pull the slot after that? It’s something to think about when you play any licensed slot.

Ah, it’s the summer! For many, the season is second only to winter in terms of just how much money we spend on stuff! Every single retailer seems to have a huge summer sale going on (yes, I’m looking straight at you, Steam), so many big movies are either releasing in theaters or on video, and let’s not forget the vacations that everyone’s usually taking around summer time! Put all of this together, and you’ll quickly find that you might be a few bucks short these few months when it comes to that all too precious disposable income. But what if you still want to scratch that all too annoying gambling itch? Don’t worry, we’ve all been there, and there are plenty of tricks you can use to squeeze a few precious hours of gambling without breaking the bank!

Make a Budget

This is the first and most important step – set a budget for yourself! Take into account all of the money that you have available to you (AFTER rent, bills, food, etc) and then decide how much of that you’d like to spend on gambling for the month… And then cut it in half. That’s your budget! My advice to you would be to deposit it to your favorite online casino or, if you’re using several online casinos, to deposit it to PayPal and go from there. Online casino was designed to be addictive, so once that budget is over and done with the temptation to deposit some more for “just one more spin” is pretty great, but you must resist it!

Pick Cheap Games

Not every casino sites are created equal. Some have unbelievably huge entry points for their games, while others have low stakes roulette for as low as 10p. Your job is to find the ones that are okay with low stakes and focus on them. Chances are that unless your casino of choice is some kind of super elitist club (and if it is, then I doubt that you’re going to be having any monetary problems in the first place), chances are you’re going to find at least a few games which have very, very low entry points. Track them down and exploit them!

Find Alternatives to Online Gambling

As I said earlier, it’s very easy to get into the mindset of “Oh, I’ll just deposit a little more”, but try to get it in your mind that once your initial deposit is gone, it’s GONE. That’s it, done, there’s nothing left, bury it! But what if you still want to play casino games? Well, if slots are your thing, there’s lots of phone and tablet apps which allow you to play slots for absolutely free, with some even giving you prizes such as discounts for hotels and stuff. I can’t tell you exactly what those apps are because they’re going to be different for your country, but try to do some research and see what you can dig up! I promise you won’t be disappointed!

If you live in New Jersey and are tired of the old chance-based gambling machines like video poker or slots, I’ve got some news for you that are going to blow your mind! A few days ago, New Jersey issued a legislation that changed several of the state’s gambling regulations. The most important one of them is, of course, the one that finally allows skill-based games to be brought into any of the eight casinos currently present in New Jersey. That includes slot machines with skill-based elements in them (for example, a bonus game where how much you win depends on skill rather than luck) as well as completely skill-based experiences akin to videogames and arcade machines. I don’t need to be a gambling expert to tell you exactly how big of a deal this whole thing is. If this trend catches on we could be seeing a revolution in gambling in general!

While discussions about whether these regulations should be accepted have been going on for literally years (the first time I read about them was in 2014), it wasn’t until very recently that the discussion finally bore fruit. As CBS Philly reports, there are already plans to create several gambling versions of popular video games, such as a casino machine based on the extremely popular “Guitar Hero” franchise. For those of you who don’t know, “Guitar Hero” is a videogame that allows you to use a plastic guitar controller to ‘play’ hundreds of classic rock, metal and pop songs across numerous instalments. Gambling versions of games such as “Angry Birds” and “Words With Friends” are also being developed. Honestly, I have absolutely no idea how any of them are going to work, but I’m also rather anxious to see how they’ll play out! While I don’t live in New Jersey, chances are YouTube videos of the machines in action will pop up pretty much as soon as they’re installed.

There are, of course, certain rules and requirements that the casinos will need to adhere to. For example, all skill-based games would need to be clearly indicated as such, to avoid confusing gamblers who want to leave themselves in the hands of Lady Luck. My absolutely favourite rule has to be that casinos aren’t allowed to artificially make the games harder or easier, they’d need to be set to the difficulty that the developer had envisioned for them and that’s that. If arcade games from the 80s are any indication, though, these games are going to be hard as hell! Arcade games used to cost money per life, so developers intentionally made them extra hard to make sure players would keep putting quarters into that slot. Now that there’s a real chance that developers would need to pay money out, I’m guessing the difficulty will be cranked up even further!

If you want to play real money games on the Internet, then at a certain point you’ll have to make a deposit at an online casino. If you haven’t done that yet, then it’s perfectly normal to be a little nervous, as, after all, it’s your personal and banking details that you’ll have to provide, let alone the fact that you’ll have to pay real cash. I’m here to tell you, though, that there’s nothing to worry about – there are many great payment services out there that are universally accepted by online casinos and that allow you to make safe deposits very quickly. Now let’s take a look at the best ones.

Depositing Using e-Wallets

E-Wallets are virtual bank accounts where you can place money and then use the service to make online purchases quicker, without the need to provide your personal details to other sites. The anonymity of it all is actually the thing players like best about e-wallets, but that’s not where all the perks of using this payment method end. E-wallets are actually not only the fastest deposit option that you can use at an online casino but also the fastest withdrawal option. Of course it all depends on the exact e-wallet that you decide to use.

One of the fastest and safest way to deposit an online casino is by using PayPal. This famous e-wallet will guarantee you instant deposits and withdrawals in under 24 hours – something unheard of at online casinos where usually the withdrawals take up to 3-5 business days. Furthermore, PayPal is one of the most secure online payment services. The only drawback of using this method is that not all online casinos accept it.

If you decided to play at a casino site which doesn’t accept PayPal, then worry not, as you have some great alternatives. There all always the other famous e-wallets Neteller and Skrill (formerly Moneybookers) which are accepted at pretty much any casino. Therefore, you always have the option to deposit with an e-wallet and I would advise you to choose exactly that exact option.

Using Prepaid Cards

If you still don’t have an e-wallet account but are eager to start playing, then you can simply use a prepaid card. The most popular prepaid card is, of course, Paysafecard and you can buy one from one of the many retail shops that the company has across the UK. You can find the closest one by going to their official website and using the shop search tool. Then, you only need to enter the code of the card in the casino cashier and you’ll immediately have your account topped up. How easy is that? The obvious drawback of this payment method is that you can only use it for deposits, so eventually you’ll have to choose an alternative payment option to withdraw with. Still, it’s pretty neat that you have this option as you can use it until your e-wallet is all set up and functional.

Other Deposit Methods

E-wallets and prepaid cards may be the fastest payment methods there are, but they are not the only ones. None of those are, in fact, the most widely used payment method. Players usually use their credit or debit cards to deposit at a casino which again is pretty fast and secure – you only need to enter the number of your card in the casino’s cashier once and then the casino saves your details for future use. Then there are other methods as well, such as wire transfer and cheques, but unfortunately they are pretty slow. All in all, your best bet when depositing at an online casino is to use an e-wallet, a prepaid card or a credit/debit card. All three types of deposit options are well-tested, secure and pretty fast, so no matter which one you choose you’ll be able to start playing right away!