Opponents of Switzerland’s recently approved new gambling law have gathered enough valid signatures to initiate a referendum against the legislative piece, the Swiss Digital Society confirmed on Twitter earlier this week.
Under the country’s laws, residents can contest any bill with a referendum if they manage to gather 50,000 valid signatures.
The Swiss Digital Society (Digitale Gesellschaft (Schweiz)) said on its Twitter page that the necessary 50,000 signatures will be submitted this Thursday. Here it is important to note that part of the signatures were collected by the Society itself. However, the majority was gathered by the youth organizations of four Swiss parties.
Young members of the Swiss People’s Party, the Free Democratic Party, the Green Party, and the Green Liberal Party started a signature gathering initiative in mid-October 2017. They had up until January 18 to collect the necessary 50,000 signatures for a future referendum.
Diesen Donnerstag werden 50'000 Unterschriften gegen #Netzsperren im Geldspielgesetz eingereicht! #Referendum
— DigitaleGesellschaft (@digiges_ch) January 15, 2018
Generally speaking, members of the above-mentioned youth organizations are contesting Switzerland’s Money Gaming Act (Geldspielgesetz). The country’s new gambling law was approved by the government last October. It was crafted to replace rather outdated laws from 1923 and 1998. However, some of its provisions were found a bit controversial and a bit too restrictive.
Why Are the Youth Parties Contesting the New Law?
The Money Gaming Act from 2017 legalizes the provision of online gambling services to Swiss players in a bid for the country’s regulatory framework to become more responsive to contemporary demand. However, the new law prohibits foreign operators from operating in the country. With that said, only local operators with physical presence in Switzerland will be able to target Swiss players online.
In order to ensure that no international iGaming operators are providing their services within Switzerland’s borders, the new law requires that local Internet service providers block access to unlicensed online gaming operations.
Members of several youth political organizations are lobbying namely against that particular provision in their country’s new gambling law. According to them, local ISPs blocking access to internationally licensed online gambling websites violates principles for the free movement of services as well as for free and unobstructed access to Internet-based services.
While online gambling operators are banned from Switzerland, the case is a bit different with suppliers of online gaming products and services. Under the Money Gaming Act, online gaming providers can provide their products to local operators by forming partnerships with them.
There have been speculations that international online gambling operators could, too, be allowed to operate in Switzerland though partnerships with locally licensed gaming businesses with land-based presence. However, it is yet to be seen whether Swiss lawmakers are ready to consider such an option. More details on the future referendum over the highly contested provisions of the new Money Gaming Act are also yet to be released.
