The Swiss Federal Court denied the Swiss Lotterie Umwelt und Entwicklung (Environment and Development Lottery) a license in a recent decision.
The ruling is in contrary to a November 2002 judgment where the Administrative Court of the Canton of Zürich decided in favor of a lottery license for the Environment and Development Lottery.
Swisslos, the (monopolistic) nationwide international lottery in Switzerland, appealed successfully the lower court's decision. Switzerland is a non-EU-member, so there is no chance of bringing the case to the EU Court of Justice.
The Environment and Development Lottery comprises ten environmental and developmental organizations, including Bread for all (BFA), and the Swiss Protestant Churches development agency.
The association wants to launch its own lottery after expressing an interest to do so in 1995, but the Swiss lottery law in general prohibits lotteries. Only the cantons have the right to hold lotteries for the public good, and although the Environment and Development Lottery tried at several levels to receive a lottery license, the Zurich cantonal legislature had denied to grant it one. However, the Zurich Administrative Court took a different stance in their judgment of November14th, 2002, and reversed the legislature's decision.
Swisslos disagreed with this decision and took the case to the Federal Court in an appeal on 23 January 2003. The highest court of the country heard arguments from Swisslos and ruled in agreement with the original decision of the Zurich legislature in denying the Environment and Development Lottery a license. With the final decision, a years-long issue has come to an end.
Swislos, or its full name Interkantonale Landeslotterie/Swislos, was established on January 1, 2003, as a result of the merger of three lotteries: Interkantonale Landeslotterie, Sport-Toto-Gesellschaft and the SEVA Lotteriegenossenschaft.
The other lottery, Loterie Romande, is the lottery of French-speaking Switzerland Society and was created in 1937 by the cantonal Governments of Vaud, Valais, Fribourg, Neuchâtel and Geneva. The canton of the Jura joined them in 1979.
Gambling for money has a constitutional basis in Art. 106 of the Federal Constitution of Switzerland. The constitution partitions the market in two different sectors -- Casinos (games of chance) and the lottery and betting sector.
The casino sector is governed by the "Bundesgesetzes betreffend Lotterien und gewerbsmässigen Wetten," the Federal Act on Games of Chance and Casinos of December 18, 1998, (Spielbankengesetz, SBG, SR 935.52), which came into effect from April 1st, 2000.). The Federal Act on Lotteries and Professional Betting of June 8, 1923 governs lottery and betting activity.
On May 31, 2001, the responsible Justice and Police Department established a sworn-in Expert Commission, for the revision of the Federal Act on Games of Chance and Casinos.
The Senate motivated the intended revision of the nearly 80-year-old lottery acts, mainly by sociopolitical value changes with regard to gambling, the technical developments and coherent gambling possibilities, which included the Internet, in addition to increasing the internationalization of the gambling market.
The new regulation should also reinforce players' protection and prevent negative effects of gambling like addiction and crime related offenses.
Moreover it is also important to look for possible forms of liberalization, and/or deregulation as well as new forms of taxation within the Swiss government.
The monopolistic Swiss gaming operators object the possible changes in the Swiss Law.