Swiss National Council Gives Licenses to Four Casinos

The National Council of Switzerland, also known as the Bundesrat, announced that it officially approved licenses to four land-based casinos in the country.

The new licensees are Grand Casino Baden, Casino Davos, Grand Casino Luzern, and Casino Zürichsee.

They all applied last year to extend their gaming services online…

…and were finally approved.

The New Swiss Law

Last year in June, the Swiss government ratified iGaming laws after the national referendum ed its voting process when around 73% of the voters were in favor of the new Gambling Act.

Even though the national gambling regulator, Eidgenössische Spielbankenkommission (ESBK), already approved applications from each land-based venue…

…Swiss National Council has the last call, so they had to give their approval before officially giving the licenses to the venues.

So now, ESBK has the task of making sure everything goes well during the process. The main goal is to give out all permits to the new licensees until the end of the month of June.

The approval of this referendum was accompanied by the controversial permission that would give the internet service providers the power to block non-licensed websites.

Although it became law in January this year, unlicensed sites will be blocked at the beginning of the next month.

More Details on the Licenses

All operators that grant the license to offer their services in Switzerland,  would be able to offer poker and roulette…

…but when it comes to poker, they will have to respect measures regarding maximum sums for poker tournaments, small lotteries, and raffles.

A maximum entry fee for small poker tournaments would be CHF200, while the maximum of total entry fees will be at CHF20,000. Limits for lotteries and raffles will depend on the size of the lottery.

The Stars Group suspended its casinos and sports betting offering in March, so now it wants to get back in the game through a partnership with a Swiss casino.

Swiss Casinos, which operate the Casino Zürichsee in Pfäffikon, partnered with Playtech before it got an official license.

Red Tiger Among the First Operators in Switzerland

At the end of April, Red Tiger became one of the first operators to receive a license to operate in Switzerland.

After successfully going live this year in multiple markets such as Italy, Denmark, Sweden…

…the supplier keeps leaving its mark, making the consumers’ base grow bigger and bigger.

In addition to this, Red Tiger inked a multitude of successful partnership with the idea to offer as unique and seamless experience as possible.

“We are looking forward to launching in Switzerland, and are excited about the opportunities that the country presents. Red Tiger is always looking to expand its reach in regulated markets. As a result, we are well-set to offer operators a portfolio of games that are proven revenue generators elsewhere,” Red Tiger’s commercial director commented.

Source:

“Swiss National Council approves casino igaming licences”, igamingbusiness.com, June 7, 2019.