Following the lead of Italy, Belgium is to defy an order from the European Union and is proposing to nationalise online poker operations by preventing outside companies, such as casino 888poker, from being able to court Belgians. If it goes ahead, online poker rooms would have to set up a separate operation that would be licensed by the Belgian government and located inside of the country, much like what Italy has done with its online poker operations.
This defies an order from the EU that was issued in June 2009. After receiving details on Belgium’s plans for online poker regulation from its government in March of last year, the EU decided that the plan violated several areas of the free trade treaty that all 27 member nations had signed. We shall watch this development with interest.