Swiss authorities face divided responsibilities in tackling illegal gambling

Switzerland's arrangements for tackling illegal gambling divide enforcement between federal and cantonal bodies, according to a legal analysis by Bern lawyer Karin Marti that was flagged by the Federal Gaming Board (CFCG) and published in the October issue of the ZfWG journal. The analysis came from a contribution to a gambling symposium at the University of Hohenheim on 17 March 2026 and examines the legal framework for money games and the allocation of powers between the Confederation and the cantons.

Competence depends on the type of game. For casino games, including online ones, the CFCG handles both licensing and criminal prosecution of illegal offers, according to the analysis. For large-scale games such as lotteries and sports betting, supervision falls to the intercantonal authority Gespa, while criminal proceedings are conducted by the cantonal public prosecutor's offices. Small-scale games fall to the cantonal authorities.

The analysis describes 26 cantons with potentially as many different interpretations, becoming 27 counting the Confederation. It states that the first problem in an alleged infringement is often establishing which authority is competent, and that a dual procedure applies: cantonal cases follow the Code of Criminal Procedure, last revised with effect from 1 January 2024, while under the CFCG administrative criminal law applies, in force since 1975 and never substantially reformed, which does not provide for covert surveillance measures. Online platforms offering both sports betting and casino games can therefore trigger two competences and two procedures against the same actors, which the analysis says can lead to duplication and even double conviction.

Organising casino or large-scale games without a concession or authorisation carries a monetary penalty of up to 180 daily rates or a custodial sentence of up to three years, rising to five years if the offence is committed professionally or as part of a gang, according to the analysis. Contraventions carry fines of up to CHF500,000. Advertising is permitted only for games authorised in Switzerland.

Prosecuting operators offering online casino from abroad, often licensed in Malta or Curaçao, is more complex, the analysis states. International judicial assistance is slow, and measures such as searches and seizures require dual criminality, which it says is almost always absent in these cases. The Money Games Act therefore introduced blocking of access to unauthorised sites, which according to Marti is circumvented relatively easily through VPNs or alternative DNS servers.

On 13 May 2026 the Federal Council took note of the results of the consultation on the revision of administrative criminal law and decided to proceed with a reform kept as cost-contained as possible, instructing the Federal Department of Justice and Police to prepare the dispatch, according to the analysis.

Participation in illegal gambling is not an offence in Switzerland, unlike in other countries, the analysis states. Investigators benefit because players, not risking self-incrimination, are more willing to testify against organisers and principals. Winnings can nonetheless be confiscated: the Federal Supreme Court has repeatedly confirmed that they are proceeds of illegal activity regardless of whether the recipient is punishable.

With a ruling of 1 April 2020 concerning a poker club active between 2010 and 2011 outside a licensed casino, the Federal Supreme Court confirmed the obligation for participating players who had won tournaments to pay a compensatory amount to the Confederation, according to the analysis. Only net gain is confiscated, with the buy-in deductible for tournaments in which a win was actually achieved.

The Federal Criminal Court, in a decision of 7 March 2023, rejected the appeal of a player who had lost about $226,000 at a Maltese online casino not licensed in Switzerland, the analysis states. The player was denied party status in the proceedings, and the stakes remain subject to confiscation in favour of the state without any right to restitution.

Some law firms in Switzerland also seek to recover losses incurred at unregulated online casinos by relying on the nullity of the gambling contract, according to the analysis. Recovery is not excluded but remains more difficult than in Germany: the Code of Obligations excludes restitution of payments made for an unlawful purpose, so it remains unclear whether a player who knew the offer was illegal could obtain it, and there is no settled case law.

The picture is uneven across the country, the analysis states. The CFCG regularly receives reports from the cantons of Zurich, Aargau and Basel-Stadt, while reports from others are rare; according to Marti, the number of reports reflects the attention of the authorities more than the actual spread of the phenomenon. Differences also emerge between language regions, with online offers prevailing in some and non-networked machines or illegal card games such as poker, Romé and Okey in others.

The analysis also places the issue in a political context. At a press conference on 19 December 2025, Federal Councillor Beat Jans said organised crime groups are often found behind illegal gambling venues and machines, according to the analysis. The same day the Federal Council approved the national strategy against organised crime, which lists the money games sector, legal and illegal, among areas at risk for money laundering and for the activity of criminal networks.

The size of the illegal market is difficult to estimate, the analysis states. A proceeding by the public prosecutor's office of the canton of Zurich established that a single network generated turnover of more than CHF300m over several years, a figure the analysis calls significant for a country of about nine million inhabitants, while the unreported total is probably much wider.