Reports
MARKET REPORT SWITZERLAND
decline is said to be down to various factors including the growth of illegal gambling, the strength of the Swiss franc, gambling in border areas and the smoking ban.
Casinos are also loosing revenues to online casinos and since 2007 revenues have dropped by 33 per cent whilst taxes received have fallen by 40 per cent.
Tis casino GGR figure is divided between slots with CHF555.6m (81 per cent) and table gaming with CHF125.6m. From this CHF319.5m was paid in taxes in total divided between CHF272.7m to the AVS fund and CHF46.8m to the cantons.
Tere are tough penalties for casinos who allow any person with gambling addiction problems into their venue and there are also rigid certification requirements for gaming machines and table games that are not particularly innovation friendly. Games must comply with specific Swiss rules and pass a time consuming process and many manufacturers don’t feel it’s worth their while to adjust their products for what is a smallish casino market in terms of products.
Tere are currently 21 casinos across the 26 cantons plus nine horse racing tracks. Slots, table gaming and pari-mutuel betting are permitted in the casinos.
CHANGES AHEAD In 2015 the Swiss federal government proposed
a new bill which would in effect replace the existing Federal Lotteries and Commercial Betting Act and Federal Games of Chance and Casino Act with a single Federal Gambling Act.
Tis new law (Geldspielgesetz) was presented to parliament in October 2015 and contains several changes, one of which is to permit online gambling (sports betting and games of skill) which is currently banned in the country (with the exception of online lotteries and sports betting provided by Swisslos and Loterie Romande) and also permit ‘money tournaments’ outside of casinos such as poker games.
Te new law will however only permit land based casinos to apply for an online licence cutting out any foreign online operators. Tere would be an IP block for foreign online providers although of course the effectiveness of such a block remains questionable.
Te subject was discussed most recently in March in parliament and now goes back to the Council of States and the legal process is expected to be finished by summer although the legislation is not anticipated to be in place until the beginning of 2019. Te two significant points raised were:
P64 NEWSWIRE / INTERACTIVE /
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