Responsible Gambling: USI and Swiss4Win Collaboration

Responsible Gaming

Responsible gaming, research and prevention: the partnership between USI and Swiss4Win 03.08.2026

Online gambling is one of the most sensitive sectors of digital development. The growth of the offering, the ease of access from mobile devices and the presence of unauthorised foreign operators are making player protection and the quality of prevention systems increasingly central issues.

In Switzerland, online gambling is permitted only within a regulated, authorised and supervised market. Authorised operators must comply with specific obligations concerning social protection, prevention, monitoring of gambling behaviour and player protection. By contrast, unauthorised platforms operate outside this system and do not offer the same guarantees in terms of player protection, supervision and integration into the Swiss prevention model.

The issue of responsible gambling, in fact, does not concern only the individual operator, but a broader ecosystem involving authorities, cantonal bodies, academia and prevention services.

It is within this context that the collaboration between USI – Università della Svizzera italiana and Swiss4Win, the Swiss online casino of Casinò di Lugano, takes place. The project aims to assess, through a scientific, data-based approach, the effectiveness of the social measures plan adopted by Swiss4Win in the area of responsible gambling.

The aim is to understand how monitoring and prevention tools are used in practice and to determine whether they can support the timely identification of situations of potential vulnerability, thereby helping to strengthen player protection strategies.

Swiss legislation requires casinos to adopt social measures and periodically assess their effectiveness. With this in mind, Swiss4Win has launched a collaboration with USI, recognising academic input as a fundamental added value for measuring and improving its social measures plan over time.

Through scientific data analysis, Swiss4Win can verify the effectiveness of the measures adopted and, where room for improvement emerges, adjust the criteria and tools used.

For Casinò di Lugano and Swiss4Win, operating within the regulated Swiss system means not only complying with the obligations established by legislation, but also actively contributing to their purpose: protecting players, preventing risks and promoting a transparent and controlled gambling environment.

The collaboration with USI therefore represents a further step in a process of continuous improvement, in which player protection is not regarded as a simple regulatory obligation, but as a process to be measured, analysed and strengthened over time.

As Serena Petrocchi, lecturer and researcher at USI, points out:

«At-risk gambling behaviours are a complex and dynamic phenomenon that can hardly be understood through individual indicators. The availability of behavioural data collected over time provides an opportunity to better study the factors associated with different gambling trajectories and to produce evidence that can help guide and improve prevention initiatives. Collaborations of this kind make it possible to bring research closer to real-world contexts, contributing to the development of scientific knowledge with potential practical implications for player protection.»

As Paolo Sanvido, CEO of Casinò di Lugano, points out:

“We are pleased to collaborate with USI on an issue as important as responsible gambling. For Swiss4Win and Casinò Lugano, player protection is a central element of how we operate within the regulated Swiss system. This project confirms the value of dialogue among authorised operators, academia and the local community, with the shared goal of promoting an increasingly informed, safe and responsible approach to gambling.”

In a market where unauthorised offerings still represent a significant challenge, the role of regulated operators is becoming increasingly important. Regulatory safeguards, supervision, monitoring, social protection and collaboration with scientific and local institutions are elements that distinguish the Swiss model from uncontrolled or unauthorised environments.

The collaboration between USI and Swiss4Win by Casinò Lugano confirms that player protection can also be strengthened through dialogue between scientific research and authorised operators. This approach helps develop increasingly effective prevention tools and promote a safe, transparent online gambling model focused on protecting the individual.