New Swiss Gaming Act Takes Off in January

An ambiguous gambling law that will make online gambling legal but will, at the same time, prohibit any foreign operators from entering the country is set to come into effect beginning January 1st next year in Switzerland.

The new Gaming Act was voted for on a referendum held in summer and now the Swiss authorities from Federal Council have confirmed that the Act will indeed be implemented starting from next year.

Much Ado About A Lot

The public vote was held in July – 73% of voters have supported the online gambling legalization legislation which is only aimed at Swiss companies and operators. The bad news is that foreign operators and betting firms will be forbidden from operating in this Central European country.

The Swiss government's fears that too much money – over $250 million – is being wagered with unregulated betting operators have made them implement this foreign ban that will surely be the topic of many heated debates in the months to come.

The Gaming Act has been passed by both houses of parliament despite the vocal opposition whose 50,000 petition signatures demanded that the Gaming Act should be forfeited in lieu of possible online censorship.

Licenses Not Due Before Summer

Even though new Swiss market will kick off in January, the Federal Council will not consider any handing out licenses before July – they will use the first half of 2019 to review all the applications.

Once they obtain the license and begin their online gambling business, operators will be offering games like video poker and roulette, but will have to set very strict sums limits on poker tourneys and lottery.

For instance, for poker, the maximum entry fee will be $198 for small tournaments...

...whereas, for lotteries and raffles, limits depend on lottery size.

Cure For Addiction

Apart from unlicensed foreign operators, one grave concern that is on Swiss' officials mind is gambling addiction. The new law, that is set to be applied to casinos and lottery operators, should help alleviate this burning issue.

Federal Council is of the opinion that such “concrete measures” will protect players from gambling-related harm in a country where roughly 250 million CHF is spent via unregulated sites per year.

The road to regulated online gambling was a long and winding one for Switzerland – the first traces of support for this began several years ago when Conference of the Cantonal Directors in Charge of Gambling voiced their support for the platform.

In October last year, Swiss government has passed the Money Gaming Act before forcing a referendum 8 months later.

Source:

“Swiss Gaming Act set to come into force from January 2019”, igamingbusiness.com, November 12th, 2018