One dead in a fire at the home of the widow of former mayor Willy Michiels, nicknamed the “King of Bingo”

Firefighters were still at work around 1 a.m. to bring the flames under control. The operation should take several hours. The cause of the fire has yet to be determined.

Willy Michiels died in June 2020 at the age of 82. In 1976 he became mayor of Kerksken, an entity of Haaltert, under the CVP label. He was then alderman and mayor of Haaltert under the colors of the Open Vld. He had been implicated for tax evasion and corruption but had remained politically active behind the scenes.

Nicknamed the “King of Bingo”, he owed his fame to the founding of Napoleon Games, a betting company that he sold in 2015 to a group of Dutch investors. His name has since been at the bottom of the list of the 100 richest Belgians.