Liechtenstein: More and more casinos have to close again

Just a few years ago, we reported on a veritable ‘casino boom’ in Liechtenstein. In the meantime, there were nine casinos in the sixth smallest country in the world. This number has since been reduced to six. And more casinos could soon follow and have to close their doors permanently.

In May 2021, we asked ourselves in an article published on GambleJoe whether Liechtenstein is the Las Vegas of Europe. It is now clear that the landlocked country in the Alpine region of Central Europe has not been able to establish itself as the ‘Las Vegas of Europe’. The main reason for this development is said to be the government's strict legislation.

Liechtenstein: Three casinos have closed within a few months

At the end of May 2022, we reported that Liechtenstein now has six casinos for just under 40,000 inhabitants. In the meantime, the number of casinos in Liechtenstein has even increased to nine. But now the big ‘casino die-off’ seems to be underway.

In summer 2022, for example, it was announced that Casino 96 in Balzers will close again. In addition, the Plaza Casino in Schaan recently closed its doors permanently. This is despite the fact that the casino also only opened at the end of 2022.

Despite the many casino bankruptcies, there are still significantly more casinos in Liechtenstein than in Las Vegas or Macau in terms of population. At the end of January this year, we reported that the casinos in Macau generated a turnover of over 20 billion euros last year.

Why is the gambling market in Liechtenstein weakening?

The fact is that significantly fewer foreign guests are coming to the casinos in Liechtenstein than assumed in the plans. Of course, Liechtenstein's 40,000 inhabitants alone are not enough to ensure the profitable operation of the casinos.

In the meantime, the interest group ‘Stopp dem Casinowildwuchs’ (Stop the casino proliferation) even tried to enforce a general ban on casinos in Liechtenstein. However, the majority of Liechtenstein citizens voted against such a strict ban in the referendum. Despite this, the government has since introduced significantly stricter regulations and improved player protection.

However, even the Liechtenstein Casino Association assumes that there are still more casinos in the country than the market allows. Specifically, it assumes that three to four casinos are sufficient for the country of 40,000 inhabitants and its visitors. Consequently, two to three more casinos would have to disappear from the market.

Liechtenstein has already been criticised in the past for the fact that there is hardly any exchange of blacklists with other countries. As a result, players from Austria and Switzerland who are banned in their home country can play in Liechtenstein without any problems. As recently as January of this year, we reported that Liechtenstein has also decided not to issue any licences for online casinos until 2028.

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