Switzerland blocks illegal online casinos-external slot machines allowed

The Swiss supervisory authority blocked illegals last Tuesday Online-Casinos. Providers who cannot have a required license are affected. On the other hand, Zurich allows slot machines outside of casinos.

Authorities block online casinos

Last week, the Federal Spielbankenkommission-ESBK for short-published an updated list of the blocking file for prohibited gambling websites. There have been 61 domains that have been blocked by the supervisory authority since June 15 of this year. These include Cloudbet.com, azurcasino.com, CHanz.com and 7Reels.com. The blocking is based on the Swiss Gambling Act, according to Article 86 I of this law “access to online play games” must be prevented “if the game offers in Switzerland are not approved”. Such closures have been taking place for around two years. Since then, a total of over 250 gambling websites have been blocked by the Swiss authorities without an official license.

Not only the ESBK, but also the intercantonal gaming supervision-the spa-updated last Tuesday the listing of illegal online casinos in Switzerland. Providers who have no license from the Swiss authorities were also blocked by this authority. However, the intercantonal gaming supervision only blocked 18 other domains compared to the ESBK. These include websites such as MyBookie.ag, LuckybirdCasino.com, Betnow.eu and Sportsbet.io. The current annual report of the spa, at the time with the name Comlot, shows that a total of 141 domains have been added to the blocking list by the end of last year.

Reason for the measure

According to the spa, “with these measures [the blocking] can be prevented that foreign companies that regularly only take insufficient measures against fraud, money laundering and gambling addiction and neither taxes nor other taxes in Switzerland with their illegal offers on the Swiss money market market take part”. So that the measures can also be carried out successfully, the authority is important to cooperate with the telecommunications providers in Switzerland. These are asked to “block access to the domestic names listed on the blocking lists (DNS blocking)”.

Online casinos that can legally offer their services are previously exclusively land-based casinos with an extended official approval. These include casinos Lucerne, the Casino Interlaken and the Casino Baden.

Coordination in Zurich for slot machines outside of casinos

The new gambling law adopted three years ago was desired by the citizens, as was slot machines outside of casinos in Zurich. According to a vote, 65 percent of the citizens in the Kanto Zurich support gambling machines not only within land -based casinos.

Thanks to the successful vote, restaurants, cafes and slot salons can also set up slot machines from next year. However, not all types of Slot machine Tobe offered. Only machines are allowed that can promote the skill of the individual players. In addition, there are also restrictions on use and profit. It must also be pointed out that a gambling addiction can arise. To do this, addresses and response points must be mentioned that can help with a gambling addiction or with a development of them.

With this approval, the canton of Zurich adapts to the applicable federal law. If this had not been done, the canton should have banned the online gambling. Now slot machines can also be set up outside of land -based casinos. But even if players can get better over time with such machines, they are still gambling that are not entirely influenced and predictable. This could be the reason that several politicians were critical of the approval and did not support them. Above all, an increase in gambling addiction is feared. Among other things, the EPP and the Greens speak out against the vote. The parties are calling for better and stricter implementation of prevention measures and precise control of the game behavior.