Switzerland launches regulated online gambling with four new licenses

Swiss lawmakers issued four new online gambling licenses to local operators who will be the first online casinos to legally serve Swiss players. The licenses went, as the law allows, to already established, local operators who will be responsible for launching the newly opened regulated Swiss online gambling market (though how open it is when foreign operators are excluded from the scene is open to debate).
The four local companies that were honored with the privilege of legally serving Swiss online gamblers are the Grand Casino Baden, Grand Casino Davos, the Grand Casino Lucerne, and the Swiss Casinos group’s Pfäffikon. The Grand Casino Baden brand will operate under the banner of its long-time free to play site, Jackpots.ch. The Grand Casino Davos is working with the Ardent Group from Belgium on its site. Pfäffikon has paired up with Playtech on its online gambling venture. Finally, the Grand Casino Lucerne will be operating under its own banner.
While only four of Switzerland’s land-based casinos are diving into the online gambling market, there are 17 more that are waiting to see what the market does before diving in themselves.
Switzerland’s regulated online gambling market became legal on January 1, and international gambling sites have been blocked from Swiss players ever since. This is the result of a ballot measure that Swiss voters approved by an astonishing 73 percent last year. Under the terms of that measure, the Swiss online gambling market was opened only to Swiss operators. (Switzerland is not a member of the European Union.)