Belgian dice games: where does this format come from?

Open any Belgian dice casino and it is obvious straight away: grids full of dice, slots dressed in dice faces, and hardly any classic fruit reels. That is neither a fad nor a coincidence. Belgian dice games owe their place to a precise legal framework, built in three steps between 1999 and 2010.

First, a law split gambling between several types of venue. Royal decrees then set out what each of them could offer. Finally, when online play arrived, every website had to stay true to the physical venue it depends on.

Why dice games are everywhere in Belgian casinos

The short answer fits in one rule: in Belgium, an online gambling site may only offer what the real-world venue its licence is attached to already offers. And most Belgian sites depend on an amusement arcade, not on a land-based casino: in the Belgian Gaming Commission register as checked in September 2026, 49 of the 58 online casino licences were B+ licences.

These arcades never had access to a casino's full catalogue. Their offer rests on a list set by royal decree, which includes games played with dice among others. Dice became the common language of those catalogues, whether played on a grid or standing in for the symbols of a machine. That explains why casino dice slots sit alongside grid games.

1999: three classes of venue, three catalogues

It all starts with the Gaming Act of 7 May 1999. It ends decades of tolerance and sorts gambling venues into several classes, each with its own rights.

Class I: casinos. They combine table games and machines, under a concession.
Class II: amusement arcades. They may only run the games of chance authorised by the King, and the law caps their number at 180 across the country.
Class III: bars and cafés. A café may only host a very small number of machines.

Each class therefore has its own catalogue, and that division of the physical world is the one carried over to online play about ten years later.

Amusement arcades: dice instead of fruit

For casinos, a royal decree of 19 July 2001 explicitly allows "reel slot" machines and video slots. For amusement arcades, the list of authorised games was set by a royal decree of 22 December 2000, replaced by the one of 26 April 2004. It includes dice games, poker, roulette and blackjack in automated form.

The operating rules for these machines were laid down on 8 April 2003. In its published version, that text required the outcome of a game to depend on chance, in the form of symbols, cards or "dice configurations". It also kept play on a tight leash: a stake of €0.10 to €0.25, an average hourly loss capped at €12.50, a game lasting at least three seconds and a win limited to 200 times the maximum stake.

The same text set a theoretical return to player of at least 84%. That is a long way from the big casinos: the arcade was designed as low-stakes entertainment. For comparison, today's online dice games post far higher figures, such as Infinity Dice at 97% or Mega Wheels at 96.51% at Crazy Dice. The roulette and blackjack of those arcades live on online at the automated gaming tables.

2010: the rule that shaped Belgian dice

The law of 10 January 2010 opens up legal online gambling. It creates three additional licences, reserved for physical operators: A+ for casinos, B+ for amusement arcades and F1+ for betting. Each holder of an A, B or F1 licence can obtain only one.

The new Article 43/8 then sets the condition that changes everything: the additional licence may only cover the operation of games "of the same nature" as those offered in the real world. A B+ site therefore brings the spirit of an arcade's catalogue online, with its dice, roulette and automated card games, but without the classic slot machines reserved for casinos.

Studios adapted to that framework. Some, like the Belgian studio Gaming1, offer a wide range of dice titles; others release their slots in a dice version. Online play now follows its own rules, set out notably in a royal decree of 25 October 2018.

Grids or reels: one rule, two answers

Two distinct families grew out of that constraint. The dice game is built on placement: you receive dice and choose where to put them on grids, most often four 3×3 grids with five lines each. The dice slot keeps the mechanics of a slot machine, with reels and paylines, but its symbols are dice faces.

Gates of Olympus 1000 Dice is a good example of that second route: a slot title converted into a dice version for the Belgian market. Both families share the same legal origin, not the same pace of play; how a dice game differs from a dice slot in practice is worth a considered choice.

Why some brands run a casino site and a dice site

You may have noticed that well-known brands run two addresses: one for their casino, another for their dice titles. That is not just a matter of marketing. An A+ licence is attached to a land-based casino, a B+ licence to an amusement arcade: two separate authorisations, with two different catalogues.

The Constitutional Court clarified this in two rulings, in 2018 and then in 2021. It held that the law must prohibit bringing licences of different classes together under one and the same domain name. The reasoning mirrors the physical world, where a casino and an amusement arcade do not share the same premises.

Checking the licence of a Belgian dice site

Since everything rests on the licence, that is the first thing to look at. An authorised site displays its number, usually in the footer. For Crazy Dice, that is licence B+19490. The Belgian Gaming Commission grants it and publishes the full list of licence holders on its website.

Two habits are enough to tell whether a site belongs to legal gambling in Belgium: compare the number shown with the official list, then make sure the site's address matches the one on that list. A site missing from the list offers no guarantee, however large its catalogue.

Dice, then, are not just a theme: they are the trace of a legal framework built for controlled play. At Crazy Dice, that framework shows in every section: it is the Belgian online casino licensed under B+ that put dice at the heart of its catalogue.

Frequently asked questions

Why are they called dice games?

Because studios and operators use the English term in all three of the country's languages, so the same game carries the same name in French, Dutch and English. Dice game refers to grid games, dice slot to slot machines played with dice.

Do land-based casinos offer dice too?

Yes, but not the same ones. The games allowed in casinos, listed in 2001, include table games played with dice, such as craps and sic bo. Dice grids and dice slots, on the other hand, are mostly associated with B+ sites.

Do the limits of physical arcades apply online?

Not as such. The stake and hourly loss caps of 2003 applied to the machines in arcades. Online play has its own decree from 2018, which among other things imposes a weekly deposit limit on the player account.

Why are roulette and blackjack on a dice site?

Because the list of games authorised in amusement arcades is not limited to dice. It also includes automated versions of roulette, poker and blackjack. A B+ site can therefore offer those tables, provided play stays automated: at its live tables, the host commentates on the game without handling it.