Switzerland’s state-regulated lottery and sports-wagering sector encountered a mild fiscal contraction during the 2025 financial year, according to the official annual gross and small-games data published yesterday by Gespa, the Swiss Gambling Supervisory Authority.
The analytical review notes slight declines in gross gambling revenue (GGR) across nearly all core product divisions, even as digital transactions continued to expand their total market share. The online channel now accounts for roughly a quarter of the country’s collective gross player yield (Bruttospielertrag, BSE).
Tracking Core Market Volumes and Player Spending
Total operator handle from cross-state lottery products and sports-betting events stood at exactly CHF3.87 billion ($4.86 billion) in 2025, representing a 2.4% year-on-year contraction compared to the 2024 calendar year. Simultaneously, the country’s total gross player yield (BSE) dropped by 3.7% to land at CHF1.203 billion, down from the CHF1.25 billion recorded during the previous year’s reporting index.
Interestingly, digital channels contributed exactly 24% of the total BSE in 2025, climbing marginally from the 23% share observed in 2024. However, financial analysts noted that this percentage shift was primarily triggered by a sharper, more aggressive decrease in traditional brick-and-mortar retail revenues rather than standalone growth within the regulated online gambling ecosystem itself.
The average per capita wagering allocation on state lotteries and sports betting dropped to CHF424 in 2025 from CHF438 in 2024. Consequently, the theoretical net spend per individual dropped to CHF132 from CHF138 in 2024, calculated against a documented Swiss population baseline of 9,124,300 residents.
Throughout the course of the fiscal year, Gespa officially authorized 62 new lottery games and approved 59 individual title modifications. During the second half of the year, field supervisors performed intensive mystery shopper campaigns at land-based lottery counters to audit retail compliance with age restriction laws for sports betting, processing the final field results right before the year-end deadline.
Performance Breakdown by Product Division
When analyzing distinct product categories, traditional draw lotto games (encompassing large-scale pools like EuroMillions and Swiss Lotto across both digital and land-based networks) generated CHF1.277 billion in gross turnover alongside CHF583.1 million in total BSE, suffering a 3.3% structural drop. Scratchcard products recorded CHF810.5 million in gross turnover and CHF316.7 million in BSE, sliding by 2.9%, while sports-betting platforms brought in a gross handle of CHF1.174 billion with a resulting BSE of CHF223.2 million, a 4.4% volume reduction.
The horse racing pool sector (PMU) recorded the most aggressive contraction of the cycle, with turnover plunging 13.7% to CHF103.5 million and BSE dropping 11.9% to CHF27.3 million. Retail terminal networks operating the electronic loterie électronique logged CHF507.2 million in turnover and CHF52.3 million in BSE, down 4.7%. Despite these adjustments, classic lottos and scratchcards maintained their dominance, accounting for roughly 75% of the total Swiss BSE, while fixed-odds sports betting held a stable 19% share.
Operator Profit Distributions and Anti-Fraud Enforcement
The two major cross-state lottery operators in Switzerland, Swisslos and Loterie Romande, generated a combined net profit (Reingewinn) of CHF814 million in 2025, falling 4.7% from the CHF854 million recorded in 2024. Swisslos’ standalone net profit slid by 5.7% to CHF562 million, while Loterie Romande’s net profit fell 2.3% to CHF252 million.
Under Swiss federal gambling guidelines, these corporate net profits are legally distributed directly to individual cantons to fund public interest programs spanning local culture, social services, and amateur sports development.
On the enforcement front, Gespa audited 42 cantonal criminal rulings and supplied technical support to 25 criminal investigations targeting illegal underground gambling cells. The authority’s investigative role involved executing physical location searches, conducting extensive computer-forensic network analysis, and authoring formal expert documentation for use in court cases.
Furthermore, Gespa added five updated web domain blocklists throughout the year, maintaining a cumulative total of 671 rogue internet domains linked to unlawful offshore operators by the conclusion of 2025.
