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Best Swiss Poker Sites: Where to Play at 2025?
What comes to your mind first when you think about Switzerland? The Alps, beautiful villages, safe and sound banks, or maybe even milk or cheese? Well, all that and many more are indeed a country's calling card. But what about poker, one of the most widespread card games on the planet? The situation with online poker, and with gambling activities in general, in Switzerland is somewhat complicated. This article is aimed to clarify all the details regarding playing online poker sites in Switzerland, so keep on reading to get the relevant information about the state of the game in one of the richest European countries.
Best online poker sites for Swiss players
Switzerland is a very strict country when it comes to various sorts of regulations. The online gambling issue have also not been spared, which means the country's law regarding this type of activity is rather straightforward. Unlike many countries that either prohibit or closely regulate gambling activities yet allow their citizens to do whatever they want on the websites with different legislation, Switzerland has a different view in this respect.
And while it is quite a challenge to find foreign poker sites allowed in Switzerland, here is an example that other huge online brands may follow.
| Category | Poker site | Bonus |
|---|---|---|
| ⭐ Best Swiss online poker site | Coinpoker | 150% up to $2,000 |
| ✅ US amateurs | BetOnline | 100% up to $1,000 |
| ✅ Most reputable | Pokerstars | 100% up to $600 |
| ✅ Bitcoin & crypto | Phenom Poker | 150% up to $3,000 |
| ✅ Casual friendly | 4Poker | 400% up to $1,000 |
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Pokerstars in Switzerland
The relationships between PokerStars and Switzerland have not always been friendly. Leaving the country in 2019, it was not until 2021 that the platform opened its doors to Swiss players.
Pokerstars is available to players in Switzerland on the Pokerstars.ch platform under the concession of the licensed online casino Davos AG (casino777.ch).
The company itself needs no introduction being the leading online poker brand around the globe. Now Swiss users can legally play on PokerStars' website and mobile app.
CoinPoker
CoinPoker is the most popular crypto online poker room available to Swiss players. The platform, founded by well-known poker pro and entrepreneur Tony G, runs entirely on blockchain technology and places strong emphasis on anonymity and secure transactions.
The lobby features Texas Holdem, Pot Limit Omaha cash games with stakes up to $200/$400. MTT tournaments feature guarantees of up to $100,000, while major series can reach $6,000,000 GTD.
New players can claim a 150% first deposit bonus up to $2,000 which gives 50% rakeback!
BetOnline Poker
BetOnline is the flagship skin of the US-facing Chico Poker Network with a 20 years background.
BOL is the best place for ring games grinders. You can find lots of cash game action of NLH, PLO, and PLO5/6 with stakes up to $5/$10, as well as Boost Poker (similar to Zoom). Players can also enjoy a variety of tournament formats:
- Windfall Spins in Hold’em and Chinese Poker
- Classic Sit & Go tournaments
- Regular MTTs with guarantees of up to $150,000
New players are welcomed with 100% welcome bonus up to $1,000. While there’s no loyalty program, the site runs several daily leaderboards and races for active players.
How to choose the best online poker site in Switzerland?
As a rule, choosing a reliable operator is solely up to the players themselves. In this case, they would have to make sure it is:
- Trustworthy (operates with a license by a reputable authority).
- Easy to use.
- Transparent and does not have a dubious background and many complaints.
- Bonus-friendly, offering good promotions, as well as holding tournaments and various events.
- With a diverse game portfolio that, apart from Texas Hold'em, features other formats like Omaha, Badugi, Chinese poker, etc.
However, due to the strict Switzerland's poker laws, each and every gambling site that has received permission to operate legally has been thoroughly examined and therefore is to be trusted.
Online poker in Switzerland
While the situation with online poker in the country is far from being favorable, the Swiss still have a pool of mostly local platforms to choose from. As well as Pokerstars.ch, there is also SwissCasinos.ch (skin of the iPoker network with access to a global player pool) and Jackpots.ch - a local site owned by Grand Casino Baden.
Besides, slowly but surely, other international brands are trying to enter the highly-regulated country, as they do not want to miss out on such a promising market with an almost 9 million people of wealthy population. This is only possible through partnerships with licensed Swiss casinos, as required by the 2019 Swiss Gaming Act.
Switzerland's legal poker background
First of all, it should be noted that generally, online gambling activities, including online poker, are legal. However, as you already know, it is strictly regulated by the Swiss government.
In 2019, the Swiss Money Gaming Act came into power and banned all the international gambling sites from operating in their country until the latter obtained a Swiss license. And getting this license by no means is an easy task, as the operators wishing to do so must set up a subsidiary in the country or cooperate with a local licensee.
In 2019, many poker operators were forced to leave the Swiss market. PokerStars and iPoker eventually returned. However, brands like GGPoker and WPT Global still have no presence in Switzerland.
The task is additionally complicated by a thorough examination procedure, which, among other things, includes the check-up of reputation and previous activity within the country if such took place. Furthermore, access to websites that do not possess a special license is restricted.
Available deposit and withdrawal methods
Despite the fact that there are a limited number of licensed online poker rooms, each offers a solid range of payment methods for Swiss players. On top of that, they also accept Swiss francs, which is also a plus for the local residents. Among the most widely used deposit and withdrawal methods, you will find the following:
| Method | Deposits | Withdrawals | Pros | Cons |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bank cards (Visa, Mastercard) | ✅ | ✅ | Fast and convenient for most players | Bank fees and limits may apply |
| E-wallets (Skrill, Neteller, PayPal) | ✅ | ✅ | Instant transactions.Widely accepted. | High fees |
| Bank transfers | ✅ | ✅ | Suitable for large sums, highly reliable | Long deposit and withdrawal times |
| Prepaid cards (Paysafecard) | ✅ | ❌ | Anonymity and ease of deposit | Not used for withdrawals |
More and more players tend to use cryptocurrencies as the preferred payment system since it is both fast and secure. However, crypto are only accepted on offshore sites, while licensed operators support only traditional deposit and withdrawal options.
If you are a fan of conventional options, especially for big sums, you might want to use wire transfers that are still the most reliable even though they have a longer transaction time.
Taxes
Switzerland is among the countries with the biggest tax rates. Thus, online operators are taxed as much as 20% of the basic rate, with a possible increase to 80% according to 2019's MGA law. Regular players, however, are not subject to taxation as long as the winnings do not exceed 1,000,000 Swiss francs.
Famous Swiss poker players
Swiss poker both live and online has one star: Linus Loeliger. He began his career grinding online low-stakes cash games and within just a few years climbed to the $50/$100 tables, earning over $1.5 million.
For a long time, Loeliger kept a low profile and stayed away from live tournaments. But after his identity became known to the poker community in 2016, he started appearing in high-roller events. In 2022, at the Triton Poker Series in Cyprus, he finished runner-up in the $200K buy-in event, taking home $3.9 million.
During the pandemic in 2020, Loeliger played the Poker Masters Main Event, which had moved online, and won $1,097,250.
At the World Series of Poker, Swiss players have won five bracelets. Emil Bise won two of them at the Rozvadov stage of the series:
- 2021 – Mini Main Event
- 2022 – Short Deck Event
Unlike most of the players that make their careers playing Texas Hold'Em, Fernando "JNandez" Habegger achieved success in PLO Omaha. Now the player is an ambassador of one of the biggest cryptocurrency online sites - Coinpoker.
Responsible Gambling
The end goal of online poker is to bring joy, fun, and a thrilling experience to people that can spend their time playing their favorite game. It would not be possible if you do not take responsible gaming rules seriously. If you ever found yourself in a situation where playing poker brings problems, here are some organizations to reach out to:
- Gamble Aware. BeGambleAware is a project created to help those who feel like having gambling problems. You can also be a responsible citizen and contact them if you know somebody who is struggling with a gambling addiction.
- Gambling Therapy. The goal of the organization is to help people and their families if having fun from playing turns into an addiction. Any man or woman living in Switzerland is welcome to be a member of the anonymous fellowship.
- Pubmed publication. This publication by Joël Billieux and others might be of great help in understanding the addiction problems among Swiss players and the effective ways to solve them.
Summary
Overall, Switzerland is definitely not one of the most poker-friendly countries. However, its citizens still have access to the local online and brick-and-mortar card rooms, as well as a couple of big internationally-known brands like PokerStars and iPoker. In the future, the country will likely welcome more online operators while maintaining a high level of security for its people.
You can always find detailed reviews and up-to-date offers from the best poker rooms in Switzerland on Worldpokerdeals.
FAQ
Now let's summarize the most common questions about playing online poker in Swiss:
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