What trends make gambling a growing concern today?

Aggressive online-casino advertising, network blocks against foreign providers that are hard to enforce, the merging of gaming and gambling (loot boxes), crypto and day-trading as gambling-like activities, and gambling becoming part of youth culture.

• Aggressive (online) casino advertising in Switzerland since online casinos were legalised.
• Network blocks (Netzsperren) against unlicensed foreign providers, which are easy to get around.
• Gamification of gambling and "gamblification" of gaming: casinos borrow game mechanics (levels, badges), and games borrow gambling mechanics such as loot boxes, paid random rewards whose addictive elements release dopamine like a slot machine.
• Implementing the Money Gaming Act is difficult in practice.
• Cryptocurrencies and day-trading: fast, volatile, app-based speculation with the same reward pattern as gambling, but not regulated as gambling.
• Part of (youth) culture: streamers and rappers show off gambling and huge losses to young audiences as entertainment.

The common thread: gambling is no longer confined to a casino you have to travel to. It is in the phone, in games and in the feeds young people follow, which makes the line between play, investment and gambling hard to see.

Go deeper:

• Wikipedia: Loot box — how loot boxes work and how countries regulate them.
• Wikipedia: Gambling in Switzerland — online licences and the blocking of unlicensed sites.