Gespa: Nearly half of underage mystery shoppers placed sports bets at Swiss retail outlets

Switzerland's Intercantonal Gambling Supervisory Authority, known as Gespa, has published its 2025 evaluation of player-protection measures at the country's two lottery operators, Swisslos and Loterie Romande. The regulator concluded that safeguards work broadly well online but flagged continuing risks in sports betting and serious weaknesses in age controls at retail points of sale.

Mystery shopping commissioned by the watchdog showed that nearly half of 200 underage test customers managed to place a sports bet at a physical outlet. Self-service terminals proved more permissive than sales assisted by a clerk. Gespa and the operators are now discussing technical fixes such as identity scanners for self-service terminals, and staff training, more mystery shopping and improved age-check tools have already been introduced.

Online gambling made up 24% of the two operators' gross gaming revenue in 2025, while 76% came from physical sales points. Gespa noted that online platforms let operators apply and assess protections more precisely. Average monthly net losses among active online players were broadly stable. Swisslos reported averages between CHF47 and CHF83, excluding a large jackpot-related outlier, and Loterie Romande reported CHF56 to CHF75. Sports betting, offered by Swisslos under the Sporttip brand, remained the highest-risk category, with the highest average losses and the largest share of players losing more than CHF2,000 a month. Gespa said features such as cash-out may encourage impulsive play.

Mandatory monthly loss caps apply to several products, and a CHF10,000 monthly deposit limit applies across products. Few players reached them: 82 Swisslos players, or 0.23% of those under a CHF2,000 cap, and 160 at Loterie Romande, or 1%. Temporary self-exclusion was used by 0.57% of active Swisslos online players and 0.6% at Loterie Romande. Early-warning systems flagged 3,048 Swisslos players and 220 Loterie Romande players. Swisslos imposed 76 gambling bans, up from 39, while Loterie Romande imposed 65, compared with 56 a year earlier. Many followed voluntary requests.

Loterie Romande replaced its Playscan tool with a Sustainable Interaction system that shows players a seven-level risk score. Swisslos added warnings for a fifth deposit within a week and cut the maximum monthly loss limit for Sporttip customers aged 18 to 21 to CHF1,000 in March 2026.

The operators reported a combined 2025 net profit of CHF814 million, down 4.7% from CHF854 million. Swisslos earned CHF562 million and Loterie Romande CHF252 million. Swisslos plans a research project on banned players, and a national gambling behaviour survey is due to report in 2027.