Swiss Supreme Court upholds ban on foreign operators entering market
Verdict announces the “domain name system” ban introduced in 2019 is proportionate
Switzerland’s Supreme Court has upheld a prior court judgment denying access to the Swiss market for a quartet of international gambling operators.
Operators Interwetten, bet-at-home and Videoslots as well as online entertainment platform Lopoca Gaming all lost high-profile court cases in 2021 after challenging the Swiss Federal Gaming Board’s (ESBK) policy of limiting access to the Swiss market by foreign operators, first introduced in January 2019 as part of the Swiss Gaming Act.
These decisions were challenged by three of the operators, leading to the Supreme Court intervention. The case centres on the usage of the “domain name system” and the blocking of foreign gambling websites to Swiss players by federal authorities.
The court suggested in a statement that the “domain name system” ban was proportionate and could not be challenged by the trio, which were not named.
“The mere fact that it at least makes access difficult is likely to be enough to channel players to the legal offering and to develop a sufficient preventative effect,” the court wrote.
“Other measures would either not be equally effective (e.g. list of monitored providers) or associated with other serious disadvantages (e.g. blocking of payment options).
“A certain amount of ‘overblocking’ is possible with DNS blocks including blocking of other services like email traffic, but this can be avoided in a reasonable manner.
“The risk of ‘overblocking’ with DNS blocking is also less extensive than with other blocking methods,” the court concluded.
The Swiss Money Gaming Act confers a six-year exclusivity window for local casino operators to expand into online gambling while international firms are barred from the market.
This has paved the way for online gambling suppliers to partner with local casinos, including Evolution with Grand Casino Baden-Baden and Playtech with Swiss Casinos.
The country’s two regulatory authorities, ESBK and the Swiss Gambling Supervisory Authority, have been required to block foreign operators from accessing the market and continue to blacklist companies on a regular basis.
A full list of the blacklisted companies can be found here.