Swiss online casinos hit by payment failure

Customers of two online casinos were affected by an issue with a local digital payments provider.

Switzerland.- Two online casinos operating in the country’s regulated market found themselves facing complaints after customers saw account balances on a digital payment provider plummet from one day to the next.

The issue is believed to have affected around 1,000 customers of Jackpots.ch and Casino777.ch who used SwissPost’s financial service, PostFinance, to fund their accounts.

Swiss media reported that some customers woke up on June 8 to discover their PostFinance balances had dropped by up to “tens of thousands of Swiss francs.”

It appears a software update on PostFinance’s platform on March 17 led to funds being credited to customers’ casino accounts without being debited from their PostFinance accounts. 

Customers who didn’t keep close tabs on their account activity only became aware of the error on June 8 when PostFinance adjusted account balances to account for the casino transfers, in some cases resulting in negative balances that led to customers’ accounts being locked.

Jackpots.ch and Casino777.ch belong to Stadtcasino Baden. CEO Detlef Brose stressed that the error was not the operator’s fault but said the sites would reimburse “all game losses that are related to transfers made more than 30 days ago.” 

Switzerland has granted seven licences for online casinos so far, although not all have yet launched.