Luxembourg to tighten law in face of digital betting boom
Luxembourg is gearing up to tighten its 48-year-old gambling laws as online – and illegal – betting is taking off around the world.
The reform of the 1977 law on gambling is aimed at preventing and prosecuting all areas of illegal gambling, especially in restaurants and similar establishments, “by adapting these rules to the realities and challenges of the 21st century,” a justice ministry spokesperson said.
According to a November 2024 report by The Lancet public health commission on gambling, net annual losses by consumers in the global gambling industry are projected to reach nearly $700 billion by 2028 – larger than the entire economy of Belgium.
“Digitalisation has transformed the production and operation of commercial gambling, but the consequences of this shift and its effects on consumers have not yet been fully recognised,” the report’s authors wrote.
Demand for Luxembourg gambling therapists triples in five years
Therapists at the Centre for Excessive Behaviour and Behavioural Addictions (ZEV) have seen a huge increase in their workload since 2020, according to the director of the centre’s Anonym Glécksspiller (Gamblers’ Anonymous) arm.
“Our therapists are working at full capacity,” Dr Andreas König told the Luxembourg Times. They now handle around 1,000 consulting hours each year on problematic gambling, compared to just 373 in 2020. With the appropriate manpower, “we could do twice as many,” König said.
Use of AI leads Big Four consultancy to adjust some fees
The use of artificial intelligence technology is prompting consultancies to rethink their business model and pricing structures, the head of a Big Four consulting firm in Luxembourg has said.
David Capocci, managing partner at KPMG Luxembourg, said AI was pushing his firm to switch from a focus on billable time to a focus on added value.
The rollout of proprietary AI tools, “such as the launch of our innovative global AI platform and the implementation of KPMG Clara AI,” which the firm uses to speed up and improve financial audits, “reflect a shift in our delivery strategy focused on client needs,” Capocci told the Luxembourg Times.
What Luxembourg fund execs think about future data sharing platform
A Luxembourg House of Financial Technology (Lhoft) steering committee is piloting a project to build and deploy a data and document sharing platform that will be available to all authorised financial service providers in the Grand Duchy.
The move is part of a larger scheme to build a range of technology services that are “mutualised” or shared between companies in Luxembourg that aim to save firms and their clients time, money and stress.
Attendees at the Luxembourg Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (LPEA) summer party shared their views on the pilot project.
Key US committee provisionally clears SES acquisition of Intelsat
An American foreign investment committee has provisionally approved SES’s takeover of rival Intelsat, in what was one major hurdle for the acquisition to close.
Both satellite operators are formally headquartered in the Grand Duchy, but most of Intelsat’s operations and revenues come from its US unit, located near Washington D.C.
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which coordinates the committee, said on Monday that it would have “no objection” to the acquisition provided SES and Intelsat agreed to comply with a “national security agreement”.