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Swiss Online Gambling Operators Face Imminent Industry Upheaval
By Shane Addinall Sep 29, 2021 IndustryLand-based Swiss casino operators believed their online gambling monopoly was safe until 2024, however the ESBK has announced it will be reviewing all online gambling concessions in 2022.Switzerland was one of the online gambling late bloomers, only writing their Federal Act on Money Games (AMG) into force on January 1st, 2019. The AMG is enforced by the Swiss Federal Gaming Board (ESBK) who oversee the approval and dissemination of all associated online casino and online poker licenses.
The Swiss AMG is also considered by many to be one of Europe’s strictest regulatory frameworks. Among other things, the AMG will only permit foreign casino operators to obtain a Swiss license after the regulations have been in place for six years. During these first six years, 2019 to 2024, only Swiss land-based casino owners may apply for an online gambling license.
Not All That Glitters Is Gold
Naturally, local gambling operators saw this as a major victory for them as it allowed them a six-year head start over their competition. However, recent legal developments in Switzerland could see their “guaranteed success” come to nothing.
Of the 21 licensed land-based casinos in Switzerland, no less than 11 of them were granted online gambling licenses when the AMG came into force. Even though the AMG makes allowance for online gambling operations to run until December 31st, 2024, the ESBK announced that it intends to decide on the “number and type of concessions to be awarded and the award procedure” as soon as April 2022.
Once the ESBK has determined by what criteria licenses will be both granted and extended all interested gambling operators will be invited to participate in the tender process which is expected to run from May to September 2022.
This news has put some operators on edge as there is no guarantee that the same eleven license holders will be granted the right to continue operating between October 2023 and December 2024.
Not only that but they could also face at least ten new competitors which could drastically reduce their new account numbers and annual revenues just ahead of an influx of competing international casino and poker sites.
Is Any Gambling Market Unscathed?
Swiss sports betting, bingo and lottery fans and operators are the online gambling sector that remains unaffected by the ESBK announcement. That is because all betting, bingo and lottery games in Switzerland fall under the jurisdiction of the Swiss Lottery and Betting Board (now Gespa, formerly Comlot).
Another challenge face by gambling regulators is that Swiss law is built on the foundation of the country comprising a “confederation of member states”. Much like we see in America this has resulted in confusing legal statutes that obfuscate which law certain types of games are required to abide by.
At present Switzerland does not have any regulatory framework which therefore governs:
- Daily fantasy sports betting – with prize pools and teams that are not real
- Esports – any prizes for competing or betting on competing teams
- Social gambling – play for prizes, not cash
In many instances offering these games digitally are enough to place it under the oversight of the relevant state. In most cases, individual states have not yet had the time to amend their local legislation to include these and other forms of gambling games.
In the meantime, these legal loopholes allow operators to continue to do business as usual in Switzerland despite the efforts of the gambling regulators to bring order to the region.
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