Hello,

I'm thinking of going with my girlfriend to Switzerland for a year. She's going to study there, and I would be playing poker full time there. That would be the plan. However I have no information about online poker in Switzerland whatsoever. I tried to google, but found no relevant/updated information about it.

So if anyone knows anything about the state/regulation of online poker in Switzerland, any information is much appreciated.

The other question is adressed to anyone that has a visa for living in Switzerland, how did they get it, how troublesome it was, and if they have any advice at all, it would be great.


Thank you for reading.

I think it's technically illegal these days, but not sure. At one point, a lower court ruled that it was a game of skill and then the supreme court ruled that it wasn't after poker games started cropping up in bars everywhere.

If you aren't EU, it's extremely hard to get a visa for over three months. I'm American and my family has lived there for a long time, and I went to high school there. In 2012-2013, I wanted to stay with them for over three months after quitting poker while getting ready to go to grad school. It was no go, and I have family ties there and have lived there before for quite some time. Exceptions are if you're a talented career artist of some sort (ie a musician who graduated from Juilliard), rich enough to have a UBS private bank account, extremely famous, or have an in demand work skill (like bioinformatics or mobile app development). If you're EU, I believe it's substantially easier. Also, it may vary by canton, but in general it's very hard.

i highly recommend to re-think doing something with this much impact on your life just for the reason of being w your gf.

id def go for it if i wanted to travel anyways, especially if i was very interested in the country id have to move to. if not, i think its a really terrible idea.

I'm a math student (I get my degree this year), and I'm going to do a masters in Quantitave methods in Finances. The thing is, the masters I want is only available every two years, and next year, it won't open, so I won't be doing anything, besides playing poker.
So staying with her in a foreign country seems pretty awesome. Besides, if things go bad, I can just go back.

Thank you for your time and for your valueable opinion.