Swiss gambling authority reports record number of blocked casinos

In Switzerland, it is possible to do what we have been talking about for some time but have not yet practised: The responsible gambling authority there keeps illegal online casinos off the market with the help of network blocking or IP blocking technologies. However, as Thomas Fritschi, Head of the Secretariat of the Federal Gaming Board, recently told Swiss Radio and Television (SRF), the process is quite complex. Nevertheless, the blocking list now has almost 2,000 entries - and it continues to grow.

In Germany, the way has actually been paved for IP and payment blocking in connection with illegal gambling offers, but implementation is still a long way off. In Switzerland, corresponding technologies have already been in use successfully for some time.

The Swiss Federal Gaming Board (SFGB) has seen a significant increase in the blocking of illegal gambling sites in recent years (especially as the pandemic subsides - see chart above), which emphasises the importance and urgency of its work. These measures are based on the revised Gambling Act, which came into force in 2019 and has since taken targeted action against unlicensed online casinos.

However, the implementation of network blocking is anything but simple. It not only requires constant dialogue between the providers and the SFGB, but also regular adaptation to new technologies and attempts to circumvent them. In addition, the illegal market must be constantly monitored and every blocking must be precisely checked to ensure that only offers without a licence are affected. It is therefore no coincidence that the official blacklist now has almost 2,000 entries (and rising), but those responsible also emphasise how arduous their work is. Despite the enormous technical and administrative challenges, the Swiss model shows how successful decisive action against illegal gambling providers can be.

The bans so far are ‘just the tip of the iceberg’

Despite the initially impressive number of almost 2,000 online casinos that have landed on the SFGB's blacklist since the introduction of the revised Gambling Act in 2019, the actual problem is much more extensive, according to Thomas Fritschi, Head of the SFGB's Secretariat.

‘We suspect that we have only identified the tip of the iceberg,’ Fritschi emphasised to SRF.

The number of illegal providers operating without a licence and using domains that are difficult to trace is likely to be much higher. As these operators often host their servers in offshore destinations such as Gibraltar or Malta, where they operate under a valid licence, they are difficult for the Swiss authorities to catch. Although the sites can be blocked in Switzerland, the providers themselves remain unchallenged in their countries of origin.

According to Fritschi, the core problem lies in the enormous ease with which new illegal offers are created on the Internet. While it only takes a few minutes for an operator to launch a new gambling platform, the SFGB often needs several days to carry out the necessary checks and take legal action before a site can be blocked. This asymmetry between the rapid emergence and slow reaction of the authorities makes the fight against illegal gambling considerably more difficult. The SRF emphasises:

1. What is particularly serious is that many of these illegal platforms do not offer any protection mechanisms for vulnerable players, as is mandatory for legal providers. Without appropriate addiction prevention, problem customers in particular are exposed to an increased risk of falling into danger on these sites.
2. Furthermore, illegal online casinos also have a financial impact on the Swiss social system. While licensed providers pay into the old-age and survivors' insurance scheme (AHV), illegal platforms deprive the state of an estimated CHF 200 million in revenue every year.

How illegal casinos continue to enter the market despite network blocking

The operators of illegal online casinos have numerous ways and means of continuing to make their offerings accessible despite the network bans in Switzerland.

• URL cloaking: One of the most common methods is to simply change the URL slightly. As you can clearly see when looking at the blocked list, they often simply add numbers or letter combinations to the address so that it no longer matches the blocked version. Technically, the offer remains the same - and the website is only available again at a slightly different address. This trick, known as URL cloaking, enables the operators to bring the sites back online quickly and cheaply, which makes the authorities' fight much more difficult. In this way, the original illegal gambling offer remains largely unchanged and accessible to users before the SFGB or the internet service providers can react.
• VPN (on the user side): In addition to the manipulation of URLs by operators, another main reason why illegal casinos continue to be used in Switzerland is that Internet users are increasingly switching on so-called virtual private networks (VPNs). On the one hand, VPNs can be used to circumvent geographical restrictions and thus access online casinos that do not have a Swiss licence. On the other hand, they are also a popular means of improving your own privacy online. A VPN disguises the user's IP address and pretends that they are in another country where the gambling offer they are accessing may be legal. In this way, players - consciously or unconsciously - evade the access restrictions of the Swiss authorities and can continue to access the blocked sites.
• Mirror site technology: Another loophole, which is again used directly by illegal providers, is so-called mirror site technology. Here, exact copies of the blocked website are hosted on different servers, often in countries with laxer regulations or weaker enforcement of gambling laws. These mirror sites appear outwardly identical to the original site, but are technically independent of the blocked domain. As the SFGB has to manually blacklist each new version, it is a constant challenge for the authorities to identify and block all active mirror sites.
• Deep links: In addition, there are so-called deep links, where only certain sections of a platform are blocked while other parts remain accessible. In these cases, gambling sites can make certain functions or content available under new links while the main part of the site is blocked. This approach makes it more difficult to efficiently prevent the entire illegal operation.
• P2P: Ultimately, decentralised P2P (peer-to-peer) networks also remain a growing challenge. These connections are not based on a central server, but on a distributed system consisting of many different devices. This makes it almost impossible to completely block access to such services, as there is no centralised infrastructure that could be shut down. P2P technologies make monitoring and blocking more difficult for the authorities, as users are directly connected and exchange content with each other.

Conclusion

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