Fabio Abate named new president of Swiss federal gaming board (ESBK)

Switzerland’s federal regulatory authority for gambling has announced that Fabio Abate will assume role as President after Hermann Bürgi’s eventual succession in December.

Bürgi has served in his role at the Eidgenössische Spielbankenkommission (ESBK) since February 2013. He is commended under his role for his push to implement regulations in to embrace iGaming across the Swiss market.  

Abate is a Swiss politician and member of the Liberal-Radical Party. He sat on the National Council from 2000 to 2011, and has been on the Council of States since 2011. The independent lawyer from will assume his role as President of the ESBK on the 1st January 2021

The ESBk has pushed for iGaming regulations since January 2019, and had amped up their efforts this year due to increased traffic in light of COVID-19.  

Switzerland continues to implement its iGaming offerings through their land-based casinos. Recently, Casino du Lac became the 7th land-based casino to go online through Pasino.ch. 

ESBK have also stressed the importance of tackling illegal gambling throughout 2020, as they continue to blacklist websites that don’t conform to their standards.  

SiGMA website adds French as its 6th language:

SiGMA Group is excited to announce the addition of a 6th language to its website. Users can now find all content, including the SiGMA News website, in French. The latest addition to SiGMA’s portfolio of languages will run alongside the recently launched Russian, Mandarin, Spanish, and Portuguese content, and aims to cater to SiGMA’s wide portfolio of international events.