Paf, the Åland Islands government-controlled operator and technology partner to Swiss market leader mycasino.ch, has agreed a pilot with Facebook to block ads from unlicensed operators. Work begins next week.
Jesper Eliasson, Paf's business development director, announced the deal during a panel at SBC Summit in Lisbon. The agreement was reached the same day following a meeting with Facebook representatives and Wolfgang Bliem, CEO of Grand Casino Luzern, which owns mycasino.ch. The site generates over €100m annually and holds more than 30% of the Swiss market.
Paf will supply Meta with licensing documentation and URLs of operators and affiliates so the platform can distinguish legal from illegal players. Eliasson noted that offshore operators circumvent Facebook's systems through creative workarounds, while Europe's patchwork of licensing regimes complicates enforcement. Switzerland was chosen to test a model that could then scale to other jurisdictions.
'I don't want someone without a licence, without compliance costs and responsible gaming, to share the market,' Eliasson said. Paf is contributing time rather than money and plans to bring the Swiss regulator into negotiations. The company spends significant sums on Facebook for customer acquisition and believes the platform has an interest in audience quality.
Eliasson warned that heavy-handed product restrictions — slowing down games or banning 'risky' slots — risk pushing users to the black market. The pilot's outcome is uncertain, but if it works Paf intends to roll the model out across Europe. The initiative contrasts with the approach of Dutch association VNLOK, which recently sued Meta over illegal gambling advertising.
