On 22 October 2026, GameArt announced the continuation of its partnership with Belgian online casino Starcasino, a collaboration the studio dates back to 2022.
According to the announcement, Starcasino offers players in Belgium more than 170 GameArt games, including Plinko, 40 Super Blazing Sevens, Jingle Jokers, Nefertiti's Nile (Dice) and Zeus Blitz: Power Strike.
Starcasino is run by Chaudfontaine Loisirs, a limited company active since 17 January 1991. It holds A+ licence no. 8112 from the Belgian Gaming Commission, valid until 2 January 2032.
This online licence extends that of the Chaudfontaine casino, one of Belgium's nine land-based casinos. Eleven gaming halls in Brussels and Flanders also trade under the Starcasino name.
Outside Belgium, the Starcasino brand operates in the Netherlands. Solcasino, a sister brand active in Spain, signed with GameArt on 25 May 2026.
In Italy, StarCasino.it is a Betsson Group brand with no connection to the Chaudfontaine operator.
GameArt's earlier Belgian announcements involved dice games or sites tied to gaming halls. The most recent was Madison Casino in September 2024, a site attached to a gaming hall in Athus near the Luxembourg border.
In 2025, Belgian online casinos (A+ licences) generated €554.1 million in gross gaming revenue, up 12.99%. Gaming hall sites (B+ licences) fell by 13.66% over the same period.
In Belgium, online gambling is banned under the age of 21, bonuses are prohibited and deposits are capped at €200 a week by default.
Belgium's Constitutional Court has set two deadlines for 31 December 2026. One concerns the ban on combining several licences on a single site, the other the rule gap with the National Lottery.
This is GameArt's fourth operator announcement of 2026, after Casino di Venezia and Solcasino in May, then the Neapolitan deal signed in September with Vincitu.
In Chaudfontaine, a town in the province of Liège, water rises from the ground at 37 °C. The municipality calls it Belgium's only hot spring. Chaudfontaine is also home to one of the kingdom's nine casinos, at number 1 on the Esplanade, and Starcasino's online licence is attached to that very casino. On 22 October 2026, GameArt gave this partner an unusual kind of press release. There was no launch to announce and no new game, just a collaboration dating back to 2022 to celebrate.
The text is short. It says that more than 170 games from the Maltese studio are available to Belgian players, names five titles, quotes two people and stops there. The rest has to be dug out of public sources: the Belgian Gaming Commission's registers, the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises and the regulator's latest annual report. They reveal who the operator is, how far its licence reaches and how much its market weighs.
That detour changes how the announcement reads. Until now, GameArt's Belgian releases had targeted sites backed by gaming halls, the home turf of dice games. This one goes public with a partner of a different calibre: an A+ licence holder. That segment is reserved for casinos and is the liveliest corner of Belgian online gambling. The studio has been there since 2022.
What does the Starcasino GameArt announcement of 22 October 2026 say?
GameArt, a Malta-based slot provider, published the announcement in the company updates section of its website. Its press release of 22 October 2026 presents Starcasino as one of Belgium's leading licensed online casinos and links it to the Grand Casino Chaudfontaine. It then lists the offer: slots, table games such as blackjack and roulette, and live casino. The platform, it adds, only accepts players aged 21 and over. The licence number is spelled out in full: A+8112, issued by the Belgian Gaming Commission (Kansspelcommissie in Dutch, Commission des jeux de hasard in French).
In substance, Belgian players at Starcasino get the full GameArt portfolio, upwards of 170 titles. The release dates the collaboration to 2022 and places it in one of Europe's strictest online markets. The studio itself holds Maltese B2B licence MGA/B2B/966/2022, issued to GameArt Ltd on 6 February 2023.
Five titles in the shop window
GameArt's release names five games and links each one to its official page. Put end to end, they cover five years of output (June 2021 to July 2026) and almost as many different styles.
Game
Release date (GameArt page)
What the game offers
Nefertiti's Nile (Dice)
17 June 2021
Dice version of an Egyptian-themed slot: cascades with a rising multiplier, moving stacked wilds, 15 free spins
Jingle Jokers
6 December 2022
Christmas-themed 3 x 3 grid with 5 lines, free spins, advertised top win of 2,500 times the stake
40 Super Blazing Sevens
11 July 2023
Classic 40-line slot, very low volatility, advertised top win of 3,000 times the stake
Plinko
18 June 2024
Board with 8 to 16 rows of pegs, volatility chosen by the player
Zeus Blitz: Power Strike
21 July 2026
3 x 3 grid, high volatility, Hold 'n Win feature
The list's only dice version sits among the "popular" titles picked for an A+ licence holder, which has no need for that format since its licence covers casino games. What is more, this version of Nefertiti's Nile came out on 17 June 2021, the very day GameArt announced five conversions of this kind for a Belgian operator. Born of a licensing constraint, the dice slot seems to have become a genre that gets shown off by choice.
Two quotes and a lot left unsaid
Speaking for Starcasino is Aleksejs Dzigaross, introduced as Head of SEO, the person in charge of the site's search engine rankings. He calls GameArt "a reliable partner for us for years". In his view, the studio's titles are consistently good and match what Belgian players expect from a regulated casino. He is also glad to keep the whole range on offer. On the studio side, Account Manager Katja Bizaj describes a partner GameArt has valued for several years and says she wants to grow the collaboration.
I have been publishing websites since 2011, and the choice of spokesperson made me smile. The operator's only voice is its SEO lead, and the release sends readers to Starcasino's homepage through a link whose anchor text is simply "online casino". That is one of the things a partnership release is for: earning a link from a well-known provider's website. It is standard practice in the industry and there is nothing wrong with it. Knowing it, though, helps you read the text for what it is.
On the other hand, there are no audience figures, no share of stakes and not even the month the collaboration started. Nor is there a game designed for the occasion. The announcement simply celebrates an existing relationship. That sets it apart from the three other partnerships with operators GameArt has made public since May 2026, which were all launches.
Who runs Starcasino in Belgium?
Belgium's public registers are enough to identify the company behind Starcasino. In the Belgian Gaming Commission's A+ licence register, updated on 23 October 2026, file 8112 matches the Starcasino website and names its operator: Chaudfontaine Loisirs. The online licence was granted on 2 January 2017 and runs until 2 January 2032. The casino's class A licence has exactly the same end date and is listed under the same file number, at the Esplanade address. This is no coincidence. Under Article 43/8 of the Gaming Act of 7 May 1999, an A+ licence can only go to the holder of an A licence, one per holder. The law also restricts it to games of the same nature as those offered in the real world.
The register holds one small curiosity. The Chaudfontaine venue is not listed there as the Grand Casino but as Starcasino.be. In the end, the brand has swallowed the house.
From Partouche to the Starcasino brand
According to the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises, Chaudfontaine Loisirs has existed since 17 January 1991, long before the internet changed gambling. Its registered office is on the Esplanade. Before 2015, the casino belonged to the French group Partouche through its subsidiary Belcasinos. On 25 February 2015, Partouche announced the sale for €10 million, adding that no A+ licence attached to the casino was in use at the time. The venue had generated €6.8 million in gross gaming revenue in the financial year that ended in late October 2014.
What followed played out in the Belgian press. On 11 March 2015, public broadcaster RTBF introduced the buyer, SGS Invest. Its boss, Gérard Glorieux, already ran Starcasino gaming halls in Brussels and Flanders. The takeover came with eight redundancies out of 55 staff, and with a prospect: the casino's licence opened the door to an online casino. By June 2016, trade publications were presenting Starcasino as Chaudfontaine Loisirs' online brand for Belgian players.
Eleven of the 175 active licences in the B licence register are gaming halls trading as Starcasino, so the brand has not abandoned its roots. All of them are in Brussels or Flanders. They are run by ten different companies, not by Chaudfontaine Loisirs itself.
The brand has also crossed the Dutch border, backed by a licence from the Kansspelautoriteit, the regulator in the Netherlands. In Spain, the group trades as Solcasino. The casino's neighbour in Spa has followed the same route, so two spa-town casinos from the province of Liège now export their online brands to the north.
Beware of the Italian namesake
In Italy, a quick search leads to StarCasino.it, which has nothing to do with Chaudfontaine. It is a brand Betsson created for that market, as the Swedish group's general counsel told Forbes Italia in November 2025. As luck would have it, Betsson's name also appears in the Belgian register, on one of the nine A+ licences: the one for the Middelkerke casino.
A+ or B+ licence: what does Starcasino change for GameArt?
Belgium built its online market on its physical venues. Every online licence there is an add-on to a land-based licence: A+ for the nine casinos, B+ for gaming halls and F1+ for betting. Because the add-on only covers games of the same nature as those in the venue, sites linked to gaming halls live mainly on dice games. Casino sites, by contrast, can offer reels, roulette and blackjack.
For years, GameArt's announcements played at the first table. Its releases covered the dice conversions of June 2021, then dice games delivered to PepperMill Casino in November 2023. Madison Casino, a partner announced in September 2024, also holds a B+ licence backed by its gaming halls.
Starcasino, a client since 2022 according to the release, changes the scale. For the provider behind these reels, first and foremost a slot maker, it means a handful of conversions on one side and the entire game library on the other.
Belgian online casinos in figures
The market itself backs that second table. The Gaming Commission's 2025 annual report, published on 16 September 2026, shows two curves moving apart. Online casinos are growing, while gaming hall sites are shrinking for the second year running.
Online gross gaming revenue (€ million)
2023
2024
2025
Change 2024-2025
Casinos (A+ licences)
455.0
490.4
554.1
+12.99%
Gaming halls (B+ licences)
252.0
192.0
165.8
-13.66%
Betting (F1+ licences)
237.6
232.6
244.6
+5.18%
Total online
944.6
915.0
964.5
+5.41%
In the Commission's own breakdown, online casinos now account for 58% of Belgian online gambling. They had 458,403 active player accounts in 2025, 33.71% more than in 2024, with average gross gaming revenue of €1,209 per account. An account is not a player, as the Commission itself points out, since the same person can open accounts with several operators. For a studio in 2026, being on the books of an A+ licence holder means standing on the right side of the curve.
What Belgian law imposes on players
Belgium lives up to the release's description of a strict market. These rules apply to Starcasino just as they do to the eight other A+ licence holders:
Age: nobody under 21 may gamble online, under Article 54 of the 1999 Gaming Act.
Deposits: the default cap has been €200 a week since autumn 2022. Players can ask the Commission for more, and it checks within three working days that they are not listed as defaulting borrowers, according to the National Bank of Belgium.
Bonuses: banned, and the Act of 18 February 2024 widened the ban further.
Advertising: banned in principle by the same Act, with exceptions possible by royal decree.
Exclusions: every operator must check the EPIS register of excluded players, and the Commission opened ten sanction cases in 2025 over missing or inadequate checks.
Payment: credit cards are banned for online gambling (Article 58 of the 1999 Gaming Act).
These rules apply in Belgium only. Even within the European Union, online gambling is regulated country by country, with no sector-specific EU legislation to harmonise it. A Belgian licence therefore covers Belgian territory alone. Anywhere else, the law of the country you live in decides what you may play.
What can we expect from Starcasino and GameArt after 2026?
For GameArt, 2026 has been a year of operators. Casino di Venezia in May, Solcasino a few days later, Vincitu in September and Starcasino in October: four announcements in just over five months. That does not count a selection of its games joining EGT Digital's aggregator in August. Two of the four announcements involve the same group, a sign that the studio has found a loyal client there in two markets.
Belgian law runs on its own calendar. On 11 December 2025, the Constitutional Court annulled an article of the Act of 18 February 2024. That provision banned operating several licences for different games on the same site, and redirecting players from one site to another. The Court kept its effects in place until a new law comes into force, and until 31 December 2026 at the latest. The same ruling upheld the age limit of 21, the bonus ban and the advertising ban. Yet it gave lawmakers until the same date to correct an inequality. At the time, the National Lottery's online lotteries were open from the age of 18, with no ban in principle on advertising or bonuses.
For a brand present both on an online casino licence and in gaming halls, the first deadline is far from trivial. Without a new law by then, the ban on combining games from different licences on one site will cease to have effect. The regulator, meanwhile, has changed ministries. Under the Act of 17 April 2026, in force since 1 June, the Commission moved from the Federal Public Service Justice to the FPS Economy. It is the first step in a reform announced in the coalition agreement of January 2025.
Then there is the black market, which the Commission's chair calls a priority in the same report. She points to 370 new illegal sites blacklisted since 1 January 2025 and to half as many new players on legal sites in 2025. She also reports that 28% of the young people surveyed say they have already gambled on an illegal site. For a legal casino like Starcasino, the toughest competition does not necessarily come from the eight other A+ licences.
The Chaudfontaine licences run until 2 January 2032, which leaves the partnership time to mature. What I take away above all is that this release, behind its birthday-card tone, says more about GameArt's position in Belgium than about Starcasino itself. The studio is not only Belgium's dice supplier. Since 2022, it has also had a seat at the casino table. Its next Belgian announcements will show whether the country becomes a market in its own right or just one more line on the list.
FAQs:
What is Starcasino?
It is the online casino of Chaudfontaine Loisirs, the company that runs the Chaudfontaine casino in the province of Liège. The Belgian Gaming Commission licenses it under number A+8112.
Is Starcasino a legal online casino in Belgium?
Yes. The Belgian Gaming Commission lists its A+ licence as valid until 2 January 2032 (register updated on 23 October 2026).
How many GameArt games does Starcasino offer?
GameArt puts the figure at more than 170, its entire portfolio. Five titles are given as examples, from Nefertiti's Nile (Dice), released in 2021, to Zeus Blitz: Power Strike, released in July 2026.
How long have GameArt and Starcasino been working together?
Since 2022, as stated in GameArt's announcement of 22 October 2026.
Can I play at Starcasino from outside Belgium?
Not on the Belgian site, whose A+ licence only covers the Belgian market. The brand runs a separate Dutch operation licensed by the Kansspelautoriteit, and the group trades as Solcasino in Spain. For any other country, the answer depends on that country's own gambling laws.
What is the minimum age for online gambling in Belgium?
The minimum age is 21 for all online games of chance. When the Constitutional Court ruled on 11 December 2025, the National Lottery's online lotteries were still open from the age of 18, a difference the Court gave lawmakers until 31 December 2026 to correct.
Is Starcasino linked to StarCasino in Italy?
No. StarCasino.it belongs to the Swedish Betsson Group, which launched it for the Italian market. Chaudfontaine Loisirs plays no part in it.
Are casino bonuses allowed in Belgium?
No. Belgian law bans bonuses offered to players. The Constitutional Court upheld that ban, tightened in 2024, in its ruling of 11 December 2025.
Why are there so many dice slots in Belgium?
Because the law ties a site's online offer to that of its parent venue. A site linked to a gaming hall therefore sticks mainly to dice games, whereas a site linked to a casino can offer classic reels.
