Key facts
In 2014, the cantons and the Swiss Sport-Toto company received overall net revenue of CHF 599 million from lotteries and sports betting. By law, this revenue must be used for charitable and non-profit purposes. In recent years, several press articles took a critical approach to the use of lottery revenue in the cantons. Time and again, criticism was levelled at the cantons for allegedly using lottery money for public-sector tasks or to finance projects which were not charitable and thereby violated the Lotteries Act.