Responsible gambling in Switzerland: a self-promotion strategy through prevention?

Through a critical discourse analysis applied to Swiss gambling operators’ communications, this article examines the permeability between prevention and promotion in ‘responsible gambling’ programs. The analysis reveals that these discourses, while presented as preventive, systematically mobilize the formal and rhetorical structures of advertising discourse. This generic hybridity reflects the contradictory position of operators, required to prevent risks while promoting their services. The study thus highlights the appropriation of regulatory mechanisms by neo-liberal market logics.