Two more Swiss casinos secure online gaming licences
Swiss gambling regulator the Eidgenössische Spielbankenkommission (ESBK) has granted online gambling licences to two land-based casinos in Bern and Interloken.
Grand Casino Kursaal Bern and Casino Interloken will both be permitted to run online casino games alongside their existing land-based offering.
The ESBK will analyse each of the casino’s igaming offering and individual games before they are given the green light to launch online.
The Bern and Interloken casinos join Grand Casino Baden, Casino Davos, Grand Casino Luzern and Casino Zürichsee in securing online gaming licences. Grand Casino Baden was the first to launch its offering in July.
The new licences have been made possible under legislation that came into effect in January, whereby the ESBK can issue permits to land-based casinos across the country, while foreign operators are blocked.
Last month, Swiss gambling regulator the Inter-Cantonal Lotteries and Betting Commission (Comlot) updated its blacklist of unlicensed gaming operators, with bet365's dot.it site among the latest additions.
A total of 17 websites have been added to the blacklist, which was first published in September following implementation of the country’s Federal Act on Real-Money Gaming (Geldspielgesetz).
It was also revealed last month that the average number of people frequently gambling in Switzerland fell again in 2017, with research commissioned by Comlot and ESBK showing just 16.4% of respondents gambled at least once a month.