SWITZERLAND Trends and Developments Contributed by: Simon Planzer and Florian Furger, PLANZER LAW
casino sector and that other casinos can still apply for an online extension of their licenses at time. The Swiss online gaming sector has been marked by several developments across the industry in the wake of recent licensing developments. Casino Mon- treux, one of the most successful casinos in the land- based sector, confirmed that its online operations with Gamfirst will be ceased by late 2025. Similarly, Airport Casino Basel AG, which operated Golden Grand, closed its online operations mid-2025. How- ever, Casino Mendrisio launched its online gaming platform “admiral.ch” mid-year. A couple of years earlier, the same casino group had already signalled a strategic move toward expansion into the digital gaming space by buying a minority share in Casino Interlaken, which also operates online games. Mean- while, as mentioned, Casino St. Moritz entirely ceased operations, marking a final exit for this land-based and online licence holder. Casino Locarno, after its licens- ing renewal, was granted an extension until spring 2026 to prepare and launch its online gaming services. The domestic online casino market has registered strong growth. This is typical for a newly regulated market, as can be observed elsewhere. The growth is also in line with the overall expansion of the European online gaming market, as illustrated by data from vari- ous markets and from trade associations. Initial strong growth in the first few years is often followed by a slow decrease that levels off well. The regulated online casino market in various European countries has nev- ertheless struggled in recent years due to far-reach- ing advertising bans and restrictions combined with growth of the black market. Interestingly, Switzerland has not been hit by a similar wave of advertising bans and restrictions. High demand in gaming services is, of course, not new demand created by domestic regu- lation. Online offerings were readily available to Swiss players prior to the 2019 Gaming Act. In the regulated Swiss online casino market, the combined gross gaming revenues of the licensed online offerings have continuously and substantially increased, which indicates that the domestic offerings are able to grab a substantial part of the total online demand by residents in Switzerland. The regulated online casino games market has rapidly increased
both in terms of offerings and revenues since its introduction. The total number of approved games has exponentially risen from 662 in 2019 to 2,072 in 2020, 3,733 in 2021 and then 5,994 in 2022. Addition- ally, the regulator introduced a decentralised, faster games-approval process from 2023, which has helped further increase these figures. According to the lists of approved online games published on 17 September 2025, 8,572 games were approved compared to 6,511 a year earlier. GGR from the online casino business was CHF230 million in 2021 and CHF250 million in 2022. GGR fur- ther increased to CHF285 million in 2023 and reached CHF309 million in 2024. This represented an increase in revenue of 14% from 2022 to 2023 and a continued increase of 8.4% in 2024. The above-mentioned increases in GGR from the online casino segment outweighed the small decline in revenue from the land-based casino business (the GGR in land-based casino business went from CHF623 million in 2023 to CHF587 million in 2024). Casinos with an A licence (typically the larger casinos) that operate both land-based and online were able to generate a total of 38% higher revenues in land- based business than casinos with a B licence (typical- ly smaller casinos) that also operate both land-based and online. However, the difference in revenues from online gaming was significantly higher, at 51%. If one also considers the number of online casinos (six for A licence casinos; four for B licence casinos), the aver- age revenue of a casino with a B licence compared to the average revenue of a casino with an A licence in online gaming is almost identical. This illustrates that online gaming can be very attractive, particularly for smaller casinos. It remains to be seen how this perspective will effectively work out for the new online casinos starting their operations in 2025/26. Conclusion The Swiss gaming market in 2025 has reflected a period of renewal and expansion following the 2023 re-licensing process. With 21 active casinos and the potential addition of a couple of more casino licences, the sector shows both stability and growth. The crea- tion of new casino zones in Lausanne and Winterthur
521 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook