To call Luxembourg a Mecca for gamblers would certainly be an exaggeration, and yet the number of slot machines is increasing, and in places where you wouldn’t necessarily expect them. For example, two such machines were recently installed at a petrol station in Friedhof. But is this legal, and how many slot machines are there in Luxembourg?
In the Grand Duchy, slot machines fall under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice. Upon enquiry by our colleagues from RTL.lu, the Ministry provided a few clarifications. First, a distinction has to be made between two types of machines. On the one hand, there are slot machines that operate according to the so-called pinball principle, and then there are slot machines that are actually gambling machines. The pinball principle states that after a player inserts a coin, their ability to continue playing is determined by their skill. There is also no chance of winning something. These machines are legal and may be operated in public spaces.
Machines where a player’s ability to continue playing depends purely on luck and where there is a chance of a potential win are deemed gambling machines and fall under the general prohibition according to Article 3 of the amended Gambling Bill of 20 April 1977. There are, however, exceptions. For example, gambling machines operated by the National Lottery do not fall under the general prohibition under Article 3 of the aforementioned bill because the National Lottery is excluded from its scope of application in Article 1. Since only machines operated by the National Lottery are legal, the Ministry of Justice does not issue permits to businesses to operate such machines.
The Ministry of Justice has no data on the total number of slot machines in Luxembourg, the type of businesses that operate them, or the estimated turnover of these machines. The Ministry also does not know how many illegal machines there are in Luxembourg. The Public Prosecutor’s Office is responsible for the control of slot machines.
In 2019, it was announced that the National Lottery would launch a pilot project to set up its own slot machines in various bars and cafés to counter illegal competition. When asked about this project by RTL.lu, the National Lottery stated that this project entered the commercial phase at the end of 2021. The pandemic caused a delay of two years, and progress was slower than expected. The aim was to install up to 600 Video Lottery Terminals (VLTs) in up to 250 locations. Currently, there are 430 VLTs in 185 locations. The original target is to be reached by the end of the year. The vast majority of VLT retailers are from the hotel and catering industry (HORECA), but the concept has also been tested in other sectors.
As far as illegal competition is concerned, there are allegedly 2,500 such machines in Luxembourg, which are said to generate over €100 million in gross turnover per year. This is the purported amount lost by players, which then goes untaxed into private pockets and, in part, into organised crime. Despite the fact that revenues generated by gambling are supposed to benefit civil society. The National Lottery, or rather the Œuvre Nationale de Secours Grande-Duchesse Charlotte, which operates the National Lottery, reportedly loses €20 million every year in this way.
In 2022, the National Lottery is said to have made €5.1 million in revenue from its game Subito, which is only about a quarter of what it was ten years ago. Besides the National Lottery, only the Casino 2000 in Mondorf-les-Bains is exempt from the gambling ban in Luxembourg.
