Decline in Swiss gambling confirmed by latest study
A recent study suggested a declining trend in gambling amongst Swiss players.
According to the most recent official study, 2017 saw a decline in Swiss gambling. This study was commissioned jointly by the Inter-Cantonal Lotteries and Betting Commission, also known as Comlot, and the Eidgenössische Spielbankenkommission (ESBK). This study confirms that just 16.4% of Swiss respondents were gambling more than once every month. We've got some details to share next.
Decline in Swiss gambling
The study was conducted by the Swiss Institute for Addiction and Health Research. It looked at the gambling behaviour of Swiss in 2017 relative to historical data from 2012 and 2007. The study determined that amongst the 18,800+ who participated in this study, 16.4% said they participated in at least one form of gambling every month. This result was a decline from 16.9% in 2012 and 18.0% in 2007. The study suggests a declining trend. The number of people who said that they gambled once before declined from 70.6% in 2012 (5 million people) to 69% in 2017 (4.4 million people).
| Year of the study | Percentage of people who played at least once every month | Percentage of people who played at least once in their lifetime |
| 2007 | 18% | - |
| 2012 | 16,9% | 70,6% |
| 2018 | 16,4% | 69% |
From 2007 to 2017, participation in at least one form of gambling each month by Swiss players declined from 18.0% to 16.4%.
Popular forms of gambling
The most popular form of gambling was lotteries which made up 48.2% of frequented games. This figure was followed by raffle and private games at 14.3%, table games at 6.7%, gambling halls at 5.7% and sports betting at 4.5%.
Roughly 2.3% of players who frequently played, did so using an international online provider.
The new federal law on gambling (Geldspielgesetz) went into effect in January. This fact means that it could not have been responsible for the decline between 2007 and 2017. The new law allowed land-based casinos to begin offering online gambling. It seems that we will have to wait longer to see what impact it has on future gambling in Switzerland.
As one would expect, operators are concerned about the impact of the decline in Swiss gambling on sales and profit.
I am a great fan of gambling, I became a croupier to finance my studies. After my high school diploma in economic and social sciences , I obtained a bachelor's degree in economics and then a master in philosophy with a thesis on player behavior. After working in an online casino customer support, I became a writer on FeedBack Casino.
