Brussels (Brussels Morning) – Dutch media’s investigation into Georges-Louis Bouchez, leader of Belgium’s Mouvement Reformateur party, allegedly tied to the gambling industry, sparks controversy in Belgian politics.
Belgium‘s Dutch-speaking media made waves in March with an in-depth investigation into alleged links between Georges-Louis Bouchez, leader of the Mouvement Reformateur party, and the gambling industry. The story was promptly taken down after getting the Francophone press a couple of weeks after journaling in Dutch media.
What Are Alleged Links Between Bouchez and Gambling?
Last month, the Dutch-language newspaper Humo briefed that several MPs sitting in the Federal Parliament had expressed concerns about Bouchez’s connections to powerful gambling lobbies, which have been a matter of more stringent regulation since 2022. The French-speaking liberal reportedly guided party policy to particularly favour these lobbies, for illustration through securing exemptions on advertising prohibitions for amateur sports clubs – among them Les Francs Borains de Bossu, a football club of which he is president.
When French-language magazine Moustique posted an article relaying the same information as that revealed in Humo, the content was swiftly extracted from the magazine’s online site.
The particular that Bouchez is an advocate for betting lobbying objectives is “nothing new”, Écolo party leader Gilles Vanden Burre described in The Brussels Times. “This has been a topic of discussion in the Federal Parliament for years now,” he stated. “The Moustique article was just a translation of Humo’s important work; it was published in the morning and taken down in the afternoon.” “This is a question of governance,” Vanden Burre feels. “The power that lobbying groups exercise is a major concern for the political decision-making process in a democracy.”
What Concerns Did MPs Express About Bouchez?
Affidavits of political figures gathered by Humo reveal Bouchez’s individual influence on MR’s opposition to the law of the gambling industry. “At one session, MR MPs realised they had nothing to say against our arguments,” Vooruit party leader Melissa Depraetere stated. “But they had to call Bouchez again and again to ask for his consent. Then they came back with their tails between their legs: ‘The boss said no’.”
Gambling has blasted in popularity among Belgians in recent years, with the number of online bets positioned each day jumping from 63,000 in 2010 to 141,000 in 2022. This can be described by the legalisation of online gambling in 2010, as well as the relaxation of advertising rules in 2021. In the same year, the number of individuals gambling rose from 800,000 to 2.1 million.
The social outcomes of gambling became more prominent in tandem with these upward trends. Between 5 and 7% of gamblers are in danger of dependency and addicts are five times more likely to perpetrate suicide than the general public. Research also indicates that these harmful effects are most concentrated in disadvantaged neighbourhoods.
How Does Gambling Regulation Affect Belgian Politics?
Lawmakers have responded by trying to regulate the industry. Former Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne (Open VLD) administered a royal decree to ban advertising in March 2022, with MR leading the fight against the bill.
“As Justice Minister, I had the right to take that measure on my own through a royal decree,” Van Quickenborne declared. “But Bouchez made it a headline issue: anything that could harm the gambling sector had to be discussed at the Council of Ministers.” MR argues that such actions could be “counter-productive” and can lead to “a loss of control of the market”. The party prefers to permit the industry to “self-regulate”.
