Swiss Working on Online Gambling

May 6, 2009

Switzerland has been working for months on the rules and regulations and laws that should come with legalizing online gambling. Their Justice Ministry announced the other day that they are very close to coming up with the reformed laws that would enable online gambling within the country, but they would also have restrictions on who could participate from outside the country.

They said that online gambling would be legal, but only for those online casinos that registered with the country. They will be issuing licenses for online gambling and poker games and anyone that does not have the Swiss license could find themselves shut out of the market.

If foreign operators wanted to be able to offer their services in online gambling they would have to be licensed first, as their current system for outlawing online gambling at the various online casinos had failed. A recent report showed that the Swiss online gambling market is worth somewhere around $55-88 million if it were to be licensed. The Federal Casino Commission is the country�s casino regulator, and they said that it would be significant revenue.

They also thought that online gambling should be restricted to Swiss territory. They felt that any online gambling entity from within the country that wanted to be legal would have to ensure that they would not allow those from outside the country to have access to their online gambling games. If the ministry can come to an agreement it will be sent on to Parliament for approval, but many think that they will have a hard time getting this past the European Commission.






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