Gambling in Switzerland: online good, offline bad?

According to the recently published turnover figures for 2023, online casinos in Switzerland enjoyed a significant increase in turnover. Land-based casinos, on the other hand, suffered a decline in turnover. But will this trend continue in the coming years, meaning that land-based casinos could even face extinction in the long term?

Just over a year ago, an article published on GambleJoe reported that Swiss casinos are increasingly focussing on the online trend. Now that the Swiss Casino Association has published its business figures for the past year a few days ago, it is clear that the online trend is already unstoppable. This means that land-based casinos are increasingly losing out and have to accept declining turnover.

Online casinos in Switzerland with double-digit growth

The ten licensed online casinos in Switzerland alone generated gross gaming revenue of CHF 286 million in 2023. This represents an impressive increase of 14.3% compared to the previous year.

Land-based casinos in Switzerland achieved gross gaming revenue of around CHF 623 million in the same period. However, a comparison with the previous year shows that a slight decline in turnover of 1.1% had to be absorbed.

Offline casinos still generate more than twice as much gross gaming revenue as online casinos in the country. However, it must be taken into account that only the ten licensed online casinos are included in this analysis. It must be assumed that significantly higher gross gaming revenue will be generated on the ‘black market’, meaning that the bottom line is that online revenue will probably already be higher than offline revenue in 2023. An article published in March dealt with the poor player protection in Casino Baden's online offering and the resulting sanctions.

It is therefore clear that the online business will have a lasting impact on the gambling industry in Switzerland. Just a few weeks ago, we reported that a Swiss man was fined for playing on his own slot machine.

Conclusion

Of course, land-based casinos are by no means threatened with extinction. Last year alone, over 4.5 million guests visited the 21 land-based casinos in Switzerland. However, the current gross gaming revenues show that the online trend is not stopping at the gambling sector either. Consequently, it can be assumed that turnover in online casinos in Switzerland will continue to increase significantly in the current year.

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