For the first time in Switzerland, blockades of access against foreign providers of online gambling were pronounced last year.
By the end of 2019, 83 domains had been blocked, the Inter-cantonal Lottery and Betting Commission (Comlot) announced on Monday.
Keystone
Several major players in the international sports betting market contacted Comlot at an early stage to ensure that they complied with Swiss law and were not taking any reputation risk – before withdrawing from the Swiss market.
The behavior of providers who did not withdraw and were subsequently blocked is heterogeneous, explains Comlot in its annual report. Some operators have attempted to reduce the impact of access blockages by continuously bringing new domains online.
Effective technical barrier
This proves that these providers are ready to break the law in order to maximize their profits and, on the other hand, that the technical barrier, even bypassable, remains effective.
Online poker or roulette offers from foreign sites accessible in Switzerland can be blocked since July 1, 2019. This measure follows from the federal gambling law accepted by the Swiss in June 2018.
New statistics
Also for the first time, Comlot publishes statistics on large and small-scale games for the 2019 financial year. In the field of large-scale games, lotteries and sports betting operated in an automated manner, at intercantonal level or online , generated a turnover of around 3 billion francs, for gross gaming revenue of 998.6 million.
In the cantons, a total of 431 small lotteries were authorized. The maximum amount allowed was 10.4 million.
116 francs per head
At the end of 2019, Switzerland had 8,603,900 inhabitants. Thus, for large-scale games, each inhabitant bet 351 francs on average for lotteries and sports bets operated in an automated manner, at the inter-cantonal or online level and recovered 235 francs in winnings. The result is a theoretical average net expenditure of 116 francs per inhabitant.
Finally, in 2019 Comlot officially assumed the function of a national platform to fight against the manipulation of sports competitions. It received 263 reports of suspicious activity in connection with 192 competitions. Almost half of the reports (118) came from the FIFA International Football Federation.
(NXP, ATS)
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