Those who browse erotic advertisements in Ticino quickly come across a formulation that appears nowhere in the cantonal law: «a domicilio e in hotel» — home visits and hotel rooms. A research project by RSI and tvsvizzera.it counted 51 such offers on the most well-known Ticinese advertisement portal, and another 33 on a second portal. By contrast, the official figures from the cantonal police show: nine approved locali erotici and around two dozen registered apartments for sex work.
This discrepancy is no accident. The Ticinese Legge sull’esercizio della prostituzione (LProst) of 22 January 2018, in force since 1 July 2019, regulates workplaces — and very meticulously: the approved venue and the registered apartment. About appointments at the client’s home, hotel rooms, or accompanying someone on a business trip, the law says nothing. It is precisely this legal gap that led between 2019 and 2021 to penalty notices, to an acquittal at criminal court, and to a clarification by the government council. Anyone working mobile in Ticino today operates in an area that is legally clarified but barely documented.
What the LProst regulates — and what it leaves open
Two workplaces the law recognizes
The LProst names two permissible locations for the practice: the locale erotico approved by the department and the apartment where the sex worker owns the property or has a right of use. For the apartment, there is a fine-meshed set of rules: one person per apartment, only one apartment per building, and the lease or sublease agreement must run for at least three months. The notification (notifica) is not made by the sex worker, but by whoever provides the apartment; the cantonal police then inform the municipality and the property owner. How this principle of one person per apartment works in everyday life is the actual reason why many resort to mobile working arrangements.
The venue requires approval from the department, initially for two years, renewable every two years; issuance CHF 350, renewal CHF 250. Requirements include, among others, building approval for the intended use, a certificate of suitability from the cantonal health service, and a gestore who meets legal requirements. Multiple venues operated by the same natural person are excluded, and any change of management requires a new application.
Location restrictions remain, regardless of work model
Art. 3 LProst prohibits practice in the open and in places visible to the public — even on private property — as well as in the vicinity of schools, hospitals, nursing and care homes, recognized places of worship, cemeteries, public transport stops, publicly accessible buildings, and playgrounds. Additionally, practice is prohibited in zones designated by the land use plan predominantly for residential use. And municipalities can set additional locations and distances via ordinanza: Chiasso has restricted the activity to a single zone with seven parcels, Mendrisio works with radii of 100 and 300 meters, Lugano has its own 2022 ordinance, Bellinzona, Arbedo-Castione, and Balerna also have regulations. This municipal level actually decides more than the cantonal law when it comes to fixed workplaces.
Two sentences that are decisive for mobile work
Art. 1 LProst states that the law applies to the practice of prostitution — „regardless of the modalities and locationsThat controls are being applied there became evident in 2025: In the Ticino portion of an international action, all nine approved establishments were inspected with no findings regarding the persons present, whereas at one public facility and 14 apartments, 15 charges were filed. This split in the inspection record repeated itself in 2026: In June, TESEU participated in an internationally coordinated action against human trafficking (June 8–12, 13 cantonal police corps, led by authorities in Romania and Austria, focus on border crossings, airports, and transport hubs). According to media reports, around twenty persons in Ticino were charged with unlicensed exercise of prostitution and/or violations of the Foreign Nationals and Integration Act.
Attention has also shifted at the municipal level. In October 2025, Lugano responded to an interpellation on the topic and noted that police and resident registration operations coordinate within criminal police and that property owners or sublessors who knowingly facilitated illegal activities are reported to the Ministero pubblico. The risks thus shift to the landlord side—a circumstance that makes short-term rentals additionally unattractive.
Practice: what you think about before the appointment
- Registration and number: TESEU registration completed, number and ID on hand. The registration requirement applies to the activity, not the location.
- Residency status basis: Permit or valid registration on hand, work days in mind.
- Record-keeping: Document work days, transfer the advance to tax account by the first of the month, have work schedule for the following week ready.
- No tacit establishment: Don’t allow the same address to become your de facto place of work without clarifying the registration of the residence.
- Check the ad: don’t use permit language, no solicitation in public space.
- Safety on foreign territory: House calls take place where you have no property rights. A fixed routine—appointment address and check-in time with a trusted person, phone contact on site, clear exit criteria—is not a substitute for rights but reduces risk.
Counseling and contact points
For health and social questions, Primis, a project of the Zonaprotetta Association, is the established address: Via Bagutti 2, 6900 Lugano, telephone +41 91 923 80 40. The office is reachable Monday through Friday mornings and afternoons, tests and checks take place Wednesday afternoons at the counseling center, additional appointments also at the workplace. In addition, there are sexual health counseling centers of the Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale in Bellinzona, Locarno, Lugano, and Mendrisio. For all legal matters—registration, permissible locations, individual questions about house calls—the Sezione TESEU of the Cantonal Police is responsible; for municipal regulations, the respective municipality.
Conclusion
The house call is not regulated in Ticino—and for that very reason, it is permitted. A penal judge established this in 2020, the government council has confirmed it: outside the restrictions of LProst, the activity is free, occasional practice at the client’s home is legal. What remains are obligations that are not tied to location: personal registration with TESEU, the residency status basis, daily tax account transfer with own record-keeping, prohibition of public solicitation. And what is lacking is the binding force of a legal text: The line is based on a first-instance judgment and administrative interpretation. Anyone who plans to build their model on this long-term should have their own situation clarified in writing with the responsible cantonal office—that costs one meeting and saves, in case of doubt, a proceeding with a penalty framework that reaches up to CHF 40,000.