Nearly Half of Underage Test Customers in Switzerland Were Able to Place Sports Bets at Retail Outlets

According to Gespa's 2025 assessment, the player protection measures of Swisslos and Loterie Romande were found to be generally effective online. However, ongoing risks were identified in sports betting, and serious weaknesses emerged in age checks at physical retail outlets.

In a mystery shopper exercise, about half of the 200 underage test customers managed to place a sports bet at a retail outlet. Self-service terminals performed worse than outlets with staff-assisted sales. Gespa and the operators are discussing technical measures for self-service terminals, including ID scanners. Meanwhile, staff training, additional mystery shopper tests, and tools to strengthen age verification have been introduced.

The report states that in 2025, online gaming accounted for 24 percent of the gross gaming revenue of the two operators. The remaining 76 percent came from physical retail outlets. The average monthly net losses of active online players remained largely unchanged from the previous year.

At Swisslos, average monthly losses, excluding outliers linked to large jackpots, ranged from 47 to 83 Swiss francs. At Loterie Romande, this range was 56 to 75 Swiss francs. Sports betting, offered under the Sporttip brand within Swisslos, remained the highest-risk category. This category recorded the highest average losses, and it also had the largest share of players losing more than 2,000 Swiss francs per month. Sports bettors are generally younger and mostly male. Gespa notes that this group is considered more vulnerable in addiction research.