In a judgment delivered today, the President of the Court of First Instance of Brussels has denied a request by BwinParty, operator of the online gambling website www.bwin.com, to order the Belgian Gaming Commission to remove www.bwin.com from its blacklist and to unblock access to it. The President found that BwinParty's request had no legal merit.
Philippe Vlaemminck, who has specialised in gambling law for over 20 years, and is now a partner at ALTIUS commented:"The Gaming Commission's blacklist is an effective and legal means of informing the public that certain websites do not meet the legal requirements and are therefore illegal. This allows Belgian internet users to avoid these sites and thus the risk of criminal sanctions."
Philippe Vlaemminck is very pleased that the judge has confirmed that the policy and initiatives of the Gaming Commission are legal, thus boosting the efforts to protect consumers from illegal gambling website operators in Belgium.
"It is furthermore only normal that an online gambling operator that willfully chose to undertake illegal activities cannot expect protection from the Belgian courts. Had the court granted BwinParty's request, it would have been astonishing and would have been a slippery slope leading to all sorts of abuses. Those who choose to operate outside the law cannot then claim its protection", Bart Heynickx, a litigation specialist at ALTIUS added.
The Belgian Gaming Commission was successfully represented in court by Philippe Vlaemminck and Bart Heynickx of the law firm ALTIUS, which enjoys an excellent reputation in the field of gambling law and litigation.
