New Swiss online gambling law could face voter referendum

Switzerland’s legislature has approved its controversial new gambling laws, but a voter referendum could undo the plans before they take effect.

On Friday, Swiss legislators gave final approval to the country’s new gambling rules, which will allow local land-based casinos to offer online casino and poker games for the first time. To ensure these online operations are a success, the bill also requires local internet service providers to block the domains of internationally licensed gambling sites.

That last item has earned the ire of local ISP groups, who claim the government is assigning them extra responsibilities without providing any funding to offset the associated costs. Within hours of Friday’s vote, the Internet Society Switzerland Chapter (ISOC-CH) had announced it would support a referendum aimed at overturning the new gambling law.

The new gambling rules are set to take effect in January 2018, but Swiss law states that if a group can collect 50k signatures from Swiss citizens, any piece of legislation can be put to a national referendum. The push for signatures will start on October 10, and the organizers will have 100 days in which to garner and validate the necessary 50k names.