Almost 2,000 illegal online casinos have been blocked by Swiss authorities since 2019. According to The Federal Gaming Board, the number of illegal online casinos websites is rising and especially problematic for gambling addicts.
Head of the Secretariat of the Federal Gaming Board, Thomas Fritschi, can’t say how many of these unlicensed online casinos actually exist. He told Swiss public television, SRF, they suspect that they have only identified the tip of the iceberg. They don’t have any concrete figures or even a map of the situation for the whole of Switzerland.
The Swiss federal government, as well as cantons are cooperatively responsible for fighting illegal gambling. This makes investigations more difficult and increases the workload. It is more difficult to take action against illegal online gambling in principle than against illegal poker players in bars or backyards. Fritschi said that the simple fact is that opening a new illegal website is much easier than closing an illegal website.
Most providers of illegal online gambling originate from Gibraltar and Malta. The reason is that the companies there operate legally. In other words, it’s a legal company, for example in Malta or Gibraltar, that has an online offering that also arrives in Switzerland, according to Fritschi. He said that it is illegal there. They block this site, but they can’t prosecute the perpetrators.
The whole thing also has direct consequences for the Swiss social security system. The illegal ones pay nothing into the social security system, in contrast to the legal casinos. Studies estimate that the state loses over CHF200 million or $235 million a year as a result.
