SWISS WATCHES DON'T MISS A SECOND. BETTING OUTLETS LET 95 UNDERAGE TESTERS THROUGH.

ID? Never heard of it. Sports bet? Right this way! Switzerland builds watches that can outlive their owners. But in 2025, some of its betting outlets struggled with a significantly less complicated engineering problem: checking whether a customer was old enough to gamble. 200 undercover attempts. 95 successful sports bets. Every tester underage. This wasn't some anonymous offshore operation operating out of a mysterious basement. The checks took place at physical Swisslos and Loterie Romande retail outlets on behalf of Swiss regulator Gespa. Swiss timekeeping is flawless. Age verification, apparently, can lose track of a few years.

WELCOME TO THE SPORTSBOOK. ID? WHAT ID?

In 2025, Blue Cross Switzerland conducted 200 mystery-shopping checks for Gespa: 100 at Swisslos outlets in Zurich and another 100 at Loterie Romande locations in Vaud. Underage testers successfully placed sports bets in 47.5% of attempts. In 44.5% of all checks, no age verification took place. Successful-bet rates were 56% at tested Swisslos outlets and 39% at Loterie Romande locations. One important caveat: this was a targeted, non-representative sample. It does not establish that nearly half of all Swiss betting outlets routinely accept underage wagers. Still, when almost half the test attempts get through, calling it a 'sample' doesn't magically turn it into a reassuring result.

THE TERMINAL SEES YOUR CASH. YOUR AGE? NOT SO MUCH.

Self-service terminals delivered the most uncomfortable statistic. When testers dealt with staff, 44.5% of attempts succeeded. At self-service terminals, that number reached 66.7%. Two out of three. This is an industry building AI-powered behavioural models, advanced fraud systems and elegant player-protection dashboards. Yet some retail terminals appear to lack the futuristic ability to ask for identification. BETDILLA has a breakthrough product idea: before the machine takes the money, make sure it's legally allowed to. We'll even waive the licensing fee.

THE RESULTS ARE IN. QUICK, CALL LEGAL.

The story didn't end with the numbers. The tests took place in 2025, but the findings weren't published until July 15, 2026, after a dispute over Gespa's authority to make the report public. According to the regulator, Swisslos and Loterie Romande used the legal procedure available to challenge publication. A binding decision subsequently confirmed Gespa's right to release the results. This is not evidence of an illegal cover-up. Companies have the right to challenge regulatory decisions. Still, we have one editorial question: could the same energy that went into legal correspondence be channelled into checking customers' ages? An underage customer at a terminal isn't going to wait for a court decision.

ONLINE KNOWS YOUR LTV. OFFLINE MAY NOT KNOW YOUR AGE.

On November 4, iGaming Business revisited the findings alongside Gespa's broader assessment of player protection during 2025. Online systems now provide loss limits, behavioural monitoring, alerts and self-exclusion tools. In March 2026, for instance, Swisslos reduced monthly loss limits for Sporttip users aged 18–21 to CHF 1,000. Physical retail remains central, accounting for 76% of the two lottery operators' GGR in 2025, compared with 24% online. So an online platform can analyse dozens of risk signals while a physical betting terminal may stumble over one basic question: 'How old are you?' Quite a contrast between digital transformation and elementary controls.

THE SOLUTION: FEWER SLOGANS. MORE ID SCANNERS.

Gespa and the operators have discussed and begun pursuing stronger controls, including potential document scanners for self-service terminals, additional staff training and further mystery-shopping checks. Those are sensible steps. But success shouldn't be measured by how many workshops have been completed. It should be measured by whether the next underage customer is refused. Age verification shouldn't be a premium add-on for a new betting terminal.

BETDILLA VERDICT: RESPONSIBLE GAMBLING IS NOT A POWERPOINT SLIDE.

Our view: the gambling industry has become much better at selling Responsible Gambling in PowerPoint than proving it at the counter. You can publish a gorgeous ESG report. Host a conference about player protection. Cover the office walls with 'Player Protection First'. Produce a touching video with a serious narrator and inspirational piano music. But if an underage person can walk up to a terminal and successfully place a prohibited bet, that entire performance turns into very expensive wallpaper. We're not claiming every Swiss betting outlet breaks the rules or that operators intentionally allowed minors to gamble. The test was targeted and limited. But 95 successful attempts out of 200 are more than enough to ask: perhaps teach the terminal to check an ID before teaching it artificial intelligence? Swiss watches can be checked once a year. A customer's age needs checking before the first bet.