Swiss casinos granted iGaming licences

Two more Swiss casinos have been granted licences to provide online gaming in the country.

Switzerland.- Swiss casinos Casinò Lugano and Casino du Lac have gained licences to offer online gambling to players in the country.

The Switzerland National Council (Bundesrat) has approved the iGaming licence extensions but individual offerings and games must now be approved by the federal gaming board Eidgenössische Spielbankenkommission (ESBK).

Casino du Lac in Geneva belongs to Groupe Partouche. The group struck a deal for provision with Evolution Gaming in January.

Casinò Lugano is jointly owned by Casinos Austria and the municipality of Lugano. It has yet to announce an igaming partner.

Casino Interlaken, another venue owned by Casinos Austria, gained an iGaming licence in February and is working with Greentube on its StarVegas.ch site.

Switzerland legalised online casinos through the Swiss Gaming Act, which came into effect on January 1 2019, and has since blocked illegal sites.

Five Swiss casinos have already launched approved online operations after gaining igaming licences: Casino Interlaken, Grand Casino Baden, Casino Davos, Grand Casino Luzern and Casino Zürichsee.

A sixth, Grand Casino Kursaal Bern, has been granted a licence but is still waiting for final ratification from the ESBK.

The new approvals for licence extensions come as Swiss casinos rely on new online offerings to soften the hit dealt by Covid-19 preventative measures.

But Swiss media said online offerings were falling a long way short of compensating for the losses faced by the closure of land-based casinos.

Grand Casino Luzerno CEO, Wolfgang Bliem, told Nau.ch: “The overlap between land-based casinos and online casinos is less than expected and therefore the closure of the casinos has had an effect.

“The online casino compensates for part of normal casino operations, but can not replace the loss of land-based casino operations and catering.”