Official language: Dutch, French, German
Population: 10,666,866
Currency: Euro (EUR)

Current Exchange Rate
1 GBP = 1.0681 EUR
1 USD = 0.6754 EUR

Poker in Belgium
While poker in Belgium, like in many western European countries, has been steadily increasing in popularity in recent years, there is lack of places to legally enjoy the game of poker in Belgium. The ten casinos that are scattered across the country do offer poker, though most just run a few tables in a corner, and do not have full-fledged poker rooms. While the tables are usually full, the demand to offer more is just not strong enough yet.

There are tournaments held at the casinos, but strict regulation by the Belgian government means each casino can only hold one poker tournament each year. Because of this, they try to make the tournaments worth while. In 2007, for example, the Belgium Poker Championship was held at Casino de Namur. The event had 50 qualification dates, and drew 800 players from around the world, despite its steep €1200 buy-in, making it one of the biggest poker tournaments in Europe.

Online Poker in Belgium
Online poker in Belgium has also been slow to mature. Internet gambling is fully legal, making Belgian poker online easy to find and to play, but there simply are not very many Belgian online poker sites to choose from. Part of this lack of sites comes from a ban that does not allow foreign-based poker rooms to operate in Belgium, but the EU is working to overrule this ban, so things should change later in 2009. Until then, players can simply play at the English version of foreign internet poker sites.

Online poker also has a role to play in the Belgian poker tournaments. For the annual Belgium Poker Championship, for example, satellite games are offered at major Belgian and International online poker rooms, allowing players to play online poker to have a chance at joining the major tournaments. Some smaller Belgian poker tournaments also offer online qualifier events.