Swiss regulator appoints new president
The federal regulatory authority ESBK has appointed Fabio Abate to replace Hermann Bürgi.
Switzerland.- The federal gambling authority, Eidgenössische Spielbankenkommission (ESBK), has named Fabio Abate as president from January 1.
Abate will replace Hermann Bürgi, who will step down at the end of December after almost eight years in the position.
The lawyer, who is a former national councillor for the canton of Ticino, joined ESBK earlier this year.
Bürgi has been at ESBK since April 2012 and has been president since February 2013, helping to oversee the introduction of a regulated igaming market for existing land-based operators in Switzerland following the introduction of new regulation last year.
So far, Swiss regulators have licensed seven online casino domains owned by land-based casinos.
The latest igaming launch is Pasino.ch owned by Groupe Partouche’s Casino du Lac, which went live just this week.
During this process the ESBK has clamped down on unregulated sites, regularly updating a blacklist of blocked gaming domains, which now lists 142 sites including those of major operators such as bet365 and Betclic Everest.
