Luxembourg gambling licence: no online licence

As of 7 November 2026 the law provides three authorisations for gambling businesses, all for activity in physical premises or at points of sale. The Loterie Nationale sits outside the licensing system.

• The Act says nothing about the internet or remote play. Operating games of chance “sous quelque forme que ce soit” without authorisation is an offence (Art. 14).
• The Loterie Nationale is state-owned, run by the Œuvre Nationale de Secours Grande-Duchesse Charlotte. Its exclusive position is not written as such: the Conseil d’État said on 10 June 2026 that it does not follow directly from an explicit provision but from the exclusion of its lotteries and sports bets from the Act, and it describes a de facto monopoly.
• No number of authorisations is written into the law and there is no tender. As of 7 November 2026 the only casino operator published is the one at Mondorf-les-Bains, which presents itself as “Casino de Jeux du Luxembourg - Mondorf-les-Bains” (Casino 2000). No authorised commercial sports-betting operator is published.
• Luxembourg publishes no register of authorisations. The Ministry of Justice page gives a contact point and no list.
• Bill 8679, filed on 7 January 2026 and “En commission” as of 7 November 2026, is not yet law. Its memorandum calls it the first step of a wider reform that “suivra une approche monopolistique”, aimed at a legal, controlled offer “principalement en ligne”. No second bill or consultation is published.

Laws that apply

• Loi modifiée du 20 avril 1977 relative à l’exploitation des jeux de hasard et des paris relatifs aux épreuves sportives (1977 Act), consolidated text of 22 August 2023
• Règlement grand-ducal du 12 février 1979 (Casino Regulation), as changed by the Regulations of 8 March 2002, 1 November 2015 and 3 December 2025
• Règlement grand-ducal du 7 septembre 1987 (Sports Betting Regulation), as changed in 1997 and 2016
• Loi du 22 mai 2009 relative à l’Oeuvre Nationale de Secours Grande-Duchesse Charlotte et à la Loterie Nationale (consolidated 4 November 2022)
• Loi modifiée du 12 novembre 2004 (anti-money laundering), consolidated 8 August 2026
• Bill 8679, filed 7 January 2026, not yet law

The three authorisations are personal decisions, not licences you apply for on a form. Each is tied to a place and to named games or rules.

• A casino authorisation names the games it covers, drawn from the closed list in Art. 1 of the Casino Regulation. A new game needs a further Government decision (Art. 50).
• A sports-betting application gives the applicant’s details, a recent criminal-record extract for each person concerned, the full betting rules and the written acceptance of mandate by the natural persons who legally represent a capital company, an SARL or a cooperative (Sports Betting Regulation Art. 2). No form or portal is published.
• Applications go in writing to the Ministry of Justice, 13 rue Erasme, L-1468 Luxembourg, e-mail [email protected]. No statutory decision period applies to a first application, and no typical timeline is published.
• The authorisation lapses if the initial tax and any guarantee are not provided within the period it sets, at least fifteen clear days (Sports Betting Regulation Art. 6(2)).
• The Minister of Justice may hold a casino application in suspense for as long as a preliminary investigation or an instruction concerns the applicant (1977 Act Art. 11(3)).
• A refusal goes to the administrative tribunal: the action is inadmissible three months after notification, and the judgment can be appealed to the Cour administrative. A casino withdrawal gives no right to compensation (Art. 7).

Vetting runs to the casino operator, its owners and its staff. Nobody in the supply chain is vetted as a supplier.

• The operator, the members of its management body, its partners or shareholders and its beneficial owners must show professional honourability at all times (1977 Act Art. 7).
• The Minister of Justice obtains criminal-record bulletin no. 2 for each person and may ask the prosecutor and the police for the facts behind a conviction. Facts more than five years old are excluded unless a procedure is pending. Convictions from other EU, Schengen and EEA states count like Luxembourg ones (Art. 11).
• The casino’s responsible director and management committee are approved by the Minister of Justice, and every person employed in the gaming rooms is approved before starting (Art. 8; Casino Regulation Arts. 51, 54).
• No instrument requires evidence of source of funds, a shareholding chart, a business plan or financial projections. The casino’s cahier des charges is not published.

Luxembourg law gives no authority a power to block gambling sites or payments, and no prosecution of an online operator is published. The tools are criminal penalties on the operator side.

• A player is not penalised today. The 1977 Act has no offence of playing, and Art. 14 reaches participants only as operators.
• Not yet law: bill 8679 would raise the penalty for operating prohibited gambling to five to eight years and EUR 250,000 to 500,000, punish advertising or promotion of prohibited or unauthorised gambling with one to three years and EUR 50,000 to 150,000, and make taking part an offence, with six months to one year and EUR 10,000 to 25,000. It would enter into force on the first day of the third month after publication.
• The bill adds no blocking power. It targets premises and equipment, such as kiosks in cafés presented as paid internet access that open only gambling sites, and opens special investigative means including online investigation under a pseudonym.
• The Conseil d’État’s opinion of 10 June 2026 raises formal oppositions, among them to the vague funfair exclusion, and reserves its position on dispensing a second constitutional vote.

Luxembourg has no supplier licence, registration or register. What the law approves is the product, and two kinds of service firm, for the casino.

• The Minister of Finance approves each slot-machine model on the casino’s application. The application names the manufacturers’ trademarks and carries a conformity certificate from a resident or non-resident homologating establishment; for a server-loaded machine the certificate covers every loadable game (Casino Regulation Art. 17).
• Semi-automatic game models need the same approval (Art. 20-2). The Minister may require a casino’s machines to be maintained by a company he has approved, resident or not (Art. 18), and refurbished machines come only from an approved firm.
• The producer or supplier of an electronic game-card system must give the control authorities a certificate of conformity before it is put into service (Art. 3-2). The Regulation of 3 December 2025 raised the maximum balance of an electronic game card from EUR 2,000 to EUR 10,000.
• No laboratory, standard or accreditation is named, and no time limit applies to approving a model. No foreign supplier licence is recognised, since there is none to recognise.
• Payment providers need authorisation under the payment services law, not gambling law. Credit cards issued by financial institutions are forbidden at casino slot machines (Art. 3).
• Affiliates and marketing agencies need no licence, but Art. 16 of the 1977 Act punishes anyone who publicises an unauthorised gaming establishment.
• Authorisation to operate is personal (Art. 7), so a game provider cannot operate games in its own right.

Charges are levies on activity, not annual licence fees. No instrument sets an annual licence fee or a minimum annual amount.

• Casino levy: due when receipts are made and payable on the 1st and the 15th of each month. Sports betting: payable on the 15th of the month for the previous month.
• For banked games the base is the difference between the casino’s advances and the cash counted, less an abatement of 25% for costs and up to 10% for the deficit of quality artistic events. For circle and trade games it is the fees charged (Art. 12 I).
• The casino’s gaming product is exempt from income tax, wealth tax and VAT (Art. 12 V). Corporate income tax for resident companies is 14% up to EUR 175,000 of taxable income, EUR 24,500 plus 30% of the excess between EUR 175,000 and EUR 200,001, and 16% above EUR 200,000, from tax year 2025.
• No advertising or sponsorship tax applies. No instrument taxes player winnings.
• AML: gambling providers regulated under the 1977 Act are professionals under the AML Act of 12 November 2004. Customer due diligence applies on a transaction of EUR 2,000 or more and on suspicion; suspicious transactions go to the CRF without delay, and a casino must also inform the State Prosecutor. Records are kept five years.

There is no online route, so these steps cover what the law does provide, a casino or sports-betting authorisation, and what to settle first.

1. 01

   Check the product against the ban

   Before any application

   Online casino, poker, live dealer games and commercial online betting have no authorisation route, and operating them is an offence under Art. 14. Esports, virtual betting and fantasy sports are not mentioned in any instrument, so any stake-based game of chance outside the exceptions falls under the ban.

2. 02

   Pick the authorisation the law offers

   Casino or sports betting

   A casino must be a tourist-interest casino in special premises, with a Luxembourg-law operating company seated in the casino’s commune. A sports-betting authorisation is built around authorised points of sale and a single collection place whose address is fixed in the authorisation.

3. 03

   Write to the Ministry of Justice

   No portal, no fee for filing

   Send the application in writing. For sports betting include the details, record extracts, betting rules and acceptance of mandate listed in Art. 2. For a casino, each person in the honourability enquiry authorises the Procureur général d’État to send bulletin no. 2 to the Minister.

4. 04

   Wait for the decision

   No statutory period

   The Government Council decides on a casino; the Minister of Justice decides on sports betting. The Minister may hold a casino file in suspense while a preliminary investigation or instruction runs.

5. 05

   Pay the initial tax and furnish any guarantee

   At least fifteen clear days

   For sports betting the initial tax (ceiling EUR 600) and any guarantee demanded (total at most EUR 120,000 at the outset) must be provided within the period in the authorisation, or it lapses.

6. 06

   Operate, declare and file AML reports

   Fortnightly or monthly

   Pay the levy on the fixed dates, keep the books and registers the Casino Regulation requires, and meet the AML duties. Casino machines and game-card systems need the approvals and certificates described above before service.

Tier-ordered: official government first, then practitioner, then trade media. Every primary figure was read from the in-force text on 7 Nov 2026.