Switzerland’s Federal Gaming Board, the Eidgenössische Spielbankenkommission (ESBK), has approved Casino Locarno as the tenth online casino licence holder in the country, authorising both the platform and games suite of its CasiNeo.ch brand.
How the Swiss Licensing Framework Works
Switzerland’s Federal Gambling Act — the Geldspielgesetz, or Bundesgesetz über Geldspiele (BGS) enacted in 2018 — restricts online casino licences to existing land-based casino operators that have received separate authorisation to extend their offering online. There is no open application process for pure-play digital entrants. The framework is deliberately constrained: only established, regulated venues with a physical presence in Switzerland can obtain federal authorisation from the ESBK to operate online gambling services.
Casino Locarno’s approval brings the total number of licensed online casinos in Switzerland to ten since the Geldspielgesetz came into force. The previous licensing window, opened in 2025, admitted Novomatic’s Admiral.ch brand through a collaboration with Casino Mendrisio.
Casino Locarno and the Baden Group
Casino Locarno was founded in 2002 and acquired by the Baden Group in 2022. The Baden Group also operates Casino Baden, one of Switzerland’s most established land-based venues. The acquisition brought Casino Locarno under shared operational management before the CasiNeo.ch online licence application was filed.
The ESBK’s approval covers both the technical platform and the games suite, meaning Casino Locarno can proceed to offer a regulated online casino product under the CasiNeo.ch brand name.
ESBK Enforcement Focus for 2026
The licence grant comes as the ESBK signals a more active compliance posture for 2026. The regulator is requiring operators to complete verification checks covering age, canton residency, and tax domicile status. It has also indicated plans to intensify action against unlicensed offshore operators, which have been a persistent concern in the Swiss market since the Geldspielgesetz introduced mandatory IP-blocking of foreign gambling sites.
Switzerland’s channelisation approach — blocking unlicensed foreign operators while licensing a small pool of domestic land-based casinos for online play — has drawn ongoing scrutiny from international operators and legal commentators. The ESBK’s enforcement campaign in 2026 is a signal that the regulator intends to defend the closed-market model rather than revisit its structural limits.
The Dutch market offers a partial comparison: the Dutch GGR channelisation rate fell below 50% in the first half of 2025, illustrating how even regulated markets with blocking mechanisms can struggle to retain player spend within their licensed frameworks. Switzerland’s stricter land-based-only entry criteria make direct comparison imprecise, but the enforcement dynamic is similar.
The ten licensed Swiss online casino operators now face parallel pressure: compliance obligations are becoming more granular while the regulator moves to close channels that allow unlicensed competition to draw Swiss players offshore. For operators in other regulated European markets, Switzerland’s model remains an outlier — controlled, limited in licence numbers, and structurally resistant to digital-first entrants.
Source: ESBK / AffPapa
