2023-10-12 04:47:00
Frederico (assumed first name), 35 years old, has always loved gambling. At a very young age, tapping the card, playing dice, with family, were among the Brussels resident’s favorite activities.
“At 17, I started sports betting. At 18, I was at the Brussels casino. At first, once a month. Then, around 20-21 years old, every day. We win the first time, beginner’s luck, we think we are the best. Then we lose. One day you can earn up to 2,500 euros, and the next day lose 2,000 euros. Sometimes my entire salary went there. Yes, I was hooked. Let’s say a moderate addictive. I have never asked for money to lend to anyone or taken out a loan. I never played with money I didn’t have. In total, perhaps I gained more than I lost. But I was burning up right away. Either by replaying my winnings, or by paying for trips for me and my friends.”
At 25, Frederico got a “real” job and got into a relationship, then had a child: “There, I had other desires. Like being able to afford a good restaurant with my girlfriend. I slowed down the game but kept going.”
According to a 2022 survey among EPIS registrants, the EPIS procedure is useful to better manage one’s finances (89.9%), to feel better (87.1%), to stop gambling (82.3%), to reduce the desire to gamble (80.1 %), and finally to improve relationships with loved ones (64.5%).
At 30, Frederico reached the milestone. He demands that he be excluded from casinos, gaming halls and online games. It is registered on the EPIS list. This platform which makes access to gambling establishments and sites impossible.
He is not the only one to have done it. The number of voluntarily excluded people saw a clear increase in 2022 (+4,483 in 2022 whereas before it was around +2,000 per year). “This is explained by the fact that since the end of 2021, you can exclude yourself in two or three clicks via itsme whereas until 2020, you had to send a letter by post. A longer and more cumbersome process which left time to change one’s mind or encouraged procrastination,” explains Magali Clavie, president of the Gambling Commission.
Magali Clavie, Chairwoman of the Gambling Commission pictured during a session of the justice commission of the federal parliament in Brussels, Wednesday 13 May 2020. BELGA PHOTO DIRK WAEM
As of September 30, 2023, the EPIS file contained 47,741 voluntary excluded people. By projection, the Commission estimates that this list will still have welcomed around 4,344 new ones over the whole of 2023.
Nearly 50,000 voluntarily excluded: this is enormous, especially since not all addicts take the step. Studies carried out abroad indicate that self-exclusion remains little used by players in serious difficulty, and does not exceed 10% of them.
Magali Clavie, however, qualifies this figure of 50,000: “Some have been registered for 15 years. They are no longer problematic but have not unsubscribed.”
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According to a 2022 survey among EPIS registrants, the EPIS procedure is useful to better manage one’s finances (89.9%), to feel better (87.1%), to stop gambling (82.3%), to reduce the desire to gamble (80.1%), and finally to improve relationships to relatives (64.5%).
It is estimated that 80% of players are men. However, among those who self-exclude, 25% are women. There is disproportion. “This does not necessarily mean that women generate a potentially heavier addiction. We can also assume that they self-exclude more quickly, more easily.”
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All I had to do was ask friends and family to create an account with their own IDs so I might play.
In return, 2,421 of them had their ban lifted in 2021 and 2,609 as of September 30, 2022. “There are certainly heavy addictives which are falling back, particularly given the low recourse to psychological help among respondents to our survey. But there are also a lot of people who, at some point, felt the need to have a period of cooling down, to occupy themselves with something else, to get back into a social life. Then, they lifted their ban but, to consume the games in a much more moderate way,” describes Magali Clavie.
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“The problem with EPIS is that there was a way to divert it,” testifies Frederico. “EPIS only works for Belgium so I went to the casino in Breda, in the Netherlands. But once or twice, no more. On the other hand, it was enough to ask relatives to create an account with their own identity documents so that I might play. But I ended up finding it heavy. I had to ask them for the code. I felt that some people accepted but that it bothered them. Since this Sunday, I stopped everything. I had all these accounts blocked. Eventually, I became more nervous, more irascible. When you start playing at ten in the morning and lose 500 euros, you carry that around all day.”
From this experience of “diversion”, Frederico finds perplexity. “I was topping up these gaming accounts from my own bank accounts. I think online gaming operators should check where the money comes from.”
Magali Clavie does not deny the problem: “Among many operators, identity checks have been strengthened. Players identify themselves with their identity card or Itsme. But we are asking for a royal decree which generalizes this security. Many operators also check whether the bank account being refilled really belongs to the person who opened the gaming account. But the delays are often too long. It sometimes takes six months before an anomaly is detected. Here too, we are asking for a royal decree so that the verification times are shorter.”
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EPIS also integrates the forcibly excluded. People in collective debt settlement, under provisional administration or even certain profiles such as magistrates, police officers, notaries, bailiffs, etc.
The tool was also introduced in betting agencies in October 2022 but suspended since January 2023 because the royal decree would not comply with the GDPR. Finally, a bill has just been approved by the Council of Ministers with a view to introducing EPIS in bookstores for betting terminals.
“Today, I still allow myself a few card games, with friends or family. Sometimes without money, sometimes with a little money. I have always loved maps. With us, it’s family,” Frederico further testifies.
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