Actually, Switzerland has already blocked online gambling, including online casinos that accept PayPal deposits. The Swiss government organized a referendum about online gambling in June 2018, and 73% of citizens voted against “unlicensed” gambling. The emphasis is on “unlicensed” here, which we will explain what it means below.

Gambling Laws In Switzerland

Gambling is actually not illegal in Switzerland. In fact, the country has 21 brick-and-mortar casinos, and in terms of casino density, it is the most “crowded” country in Europe. There is one law about gambling: Federal Act on Games of Chance and Casinos (FGA). This law is from 1998 and it gives the right to control gambling in the country to an institution called the Swiss Federal Gaming Board (SFGB). According to the rules of this board:

• Anyone who wishes to offer gambling services in Switzerland must obtain an A-type license;
• Only the SFGB is authorized to give this license;
• The license covers all kinds of games based on luck and skill, including a popular Swiss card game called “Jass”;
• Cantons in the country may provide exceptions for these rules and give their own gambling licenses if they choose to do so.

The problem here is the license type: A-type licenses can only be given in areas with more than one million people. Switzerland is not a big country and only two cities have more than one million people: Bern and Zurich. This means all casinos can only be opened there. There is also a B-type license, but it is very limited and allows only a couple of games & machines. In short, if you want to run a gambling operation in Switzerland, you must obtain an A-type license, which lasts 20 years. You must also pay a tax rate of 40% annually – and the Swedes are very serious when it comes to taxes.

Online Gambling in Switzerland

Online gambling was always illegal in Switzerland. The FGA always prohibited it, and the SFGB did not provide any licenses for it. So, what was the point of the referendum we mentioned above? Well, that referendum was about changing the FGA terms, which resulted like this:

• The SFGB can provide licenses for online casinos now. As long as you obtain a special type of license from the SFGB, you can open an online casino and accept Swedes.
• The SFGB can block access to all online casinos that do not have this license. (The ISPs in the country are obliged to block unlicensed online casino websites.)

In short, online gambling became legal in the country but a lot of casino sites are blocked now. Since getting an SFGB license requires opening a company in Switzerland, none of the well-known brands are interested in getting one. In fact, there is still no company that obtained this license. So, basically, online gambling is legal but visiting online casinos without an SFGB license is not. Since no online casino has this license, they practically banned online casinos in general. The gamblers of Switzerland cannot access any casino sites without using VPN.

But It Is Not a Crime

However, there are no laws that punish the gamblers who still continue to play at online casinos. So, if you manage to access a casino website with VPN, you can continue doing it: The government is not interested in your activities. The law (and punishment) only applies to gambling companies, not gamblers. Likewise, your gambling winnings are completely legal. As you can guess, the banking system in the country is not affected by this new law too. This means you can continue to deposit and withdraw money from “unauthorized” online casinos without a problem. So, yes, unlicensed casinos are banned but if you know how to bypass this ban, nobody will stop you.  

There may still be a way to offer truly legal online gambling in Switzerland: The cantons. Cantons are like independent states and Switzerland has 26 cantons in total. Technically, they are not forced to comply with FGA law. If they choose to do so, they can offer legal gambling services within the canton limits. And this won’t be a hard thing: They will just host the servers and nothing else. However, cantons are very small in land size and they do not need any additional income – they are doing well enough. The chance of making a stand against the federal government is almost non-existent since because they have no real reason to do so. Also, do not forget that the citizens of these cantons also joined the referendum and voted: The majority of them supports the ban on unlicensed online casinos. So, while technically possible, nobody expects cantons to make a stand against the FGA law.