Dismissal of the appeal against the rejection of the amendment to the game offer by the Federal Gaming Commission

Facts

The Casinò Admiral SA, a subsidiary of ACE Casino Holding AG, applied to the Federal Gaming Commission (ESBK) to amend its game offer by replacing ten gaming machines of the type "Swissmania II". The ESBK rejected the application, as Casinò Admiral SA and the manufacturer of the machines, AGI/Novomatic AG, are personally intertwined through the sole shareholder Johann F. Graf. The Federal Administrative Court confirmed this decision.

Casinò Admiral SA lodged an appeal with the Federal Court, claiming that the ESBK and the Federal Administrative Court had violated their right to be heard and that the rejection of the amendment to the game offer was unlawful.

Considerations

The Federal Court dismissed the appeal. It stated that the independence of the concessionaires and the transparency of the relationships are a central concern of the gaming legislation. The ESBK and the Federal Administrative Court had rightly found that Casinò Admiral SA and AGI/Novomatic AG were personally intertwined and that this constituted an inadmissible dependence.

The Federal Court found that the appellant had not substantiated that the findings of fact by the lower…