Campaign For Preventing Gambling Addiction Issues Launched in Switzerland

A brand-new digital campaign for detection, prevention and assistance with fighting gambling-related issues has been launched by an independent foundation in Switzerland.

The prime objective of this campaign is to educate people on gambling’s addictive nature and to encourage individuals who are feeling the symptoms of these issues to ask for help and take necessary steps towards healing.

A Step By Step Measure

The campaign, called Gambling without Addiction (Spielen ohne Sucht)…

…was instated by Sucht Schweiz, which is an organization that works on public health and prevention of various kinds of addictions in Swiss populace.

The said campaign already took off in 16 cantons in which German is the primary language. The campaign consists of programs such as handing out advice for people who gamble and who feel are in need of help. They will be assisted with learning how to set limits on their gambling spendings or how to self-exclude themselves.

The initiative’s website also points to the helpline for German-speaking players. For non-German speakers, the service is also available, with the help of interpreters. The service is totally free of cost.

Better Safe Than Sorry

Recently, a report was published that revealed…

…3% of Swiss population was addicted to gambling or in danger of becoming addicted. This initiative is a direct response to that fact.

Federal Gaming Commission and the Swiss Lottery and Betting Board have provided the figure while the survey was conducted by the Swiss Institute for Addiction and Health Research.

Taking part in the survey were 18,832 respondents. 69% of those have said that they gambled at least once in their lives.

As much as 22% of those who have identified some kind of gambling-related issues with them have said that they gambled with unauthorized offshore companies.

New Landscape, New Challenges

Switzerland has adopted a brand new gambling law at the beginning of the year. It saw the legalization of online gambling…

…with only land-based casinos operating in the country having the permit to operate gambling websites. Foreign gaming operators can only form partnerships with local land-based casinos if they want to take part in this market.

In July, first four online venues have gone live.

Source:

“Campaign targets online gambling addicts”, swissinfo.ch, October 28, 2019.