On the 1st of November last, the largest casino in Switzerland opened much to the joy of the people of Zurich. This former department store in the city centre needed 11 months of renovations to transform it into a modern venue and it cost more than 45 million francs. The 3000m2 holds 26 gaming rooms and 400 slot machines on two floors of the building, a third floor is devoted to entertainment and the last floor is for restaurants which should be opened during 2013.The launch of this concession A casino is a real victory because in 2001 Bern didn’t grant any licence to this Canton whereas 21 licences were granted to neighbouring cities. In reality, the Confederation was forced to grant new licences due to a large decrease of 11% in turnover in the 19 Swiss casinos in 2011 and therefore a decrease in taxes. The Zurich Swiss Casino will create 213 full time positions with 60 of these jobs going to dealers. The annual turnover is estimated to be 107 million francs. So 66 million would be given to the confederation in the form of taxes, which is a good amount in these difficult times.
The casino is expecting almost 1600 players daily and hopes that it will quickly reach this figure. This is worrying the nearest casino, the Baden Casino which is predicting a future drop in turnover of 35%.
On the 23rd of November next, a new casino will open in French Speaking Switzerland, in Neuchatel but in contrast to the Zurich Swiss Casino, this will be a B licence casino which limits the number of one armed bandits and the amount of the bets.
