Chinese Crackdown on Online Gambling

June 10, 2010 | News Category: Gaming Law

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The Chinese government has been trying to eradicate online gambling in China for some time now, and have now come down hard on any online gambling operations they are able to locate.

The Chinese authorities have shut down a large number of online gambling rings that are considered illegal under Chinese law. Since February 2010, a large amount of individuals have been detained and prosecuted for their involvement with online gambling. The number released noted that 3,430 suspects were apprehended since February.

Not only were 3,430 people detained since February, but nearly as much as the equivalent of US$88 million has also been seized in during this time period.

On Monday, a news release from the Public Security Ministry in China stated that over 26 gambling organizations had been broken up. These gambling organizations all had connections with overseas online gambling. The anti-gambling campaign that the Chinese government has launched has managed to crack more than 670 cases of what is considered illegal online gambling in China.

Not only have actual online gambling websites been closed down, but even websites that offer information to the gambling industry, in a similar way to that of Casino People, have also been shut down. This is true, especially in cases where any links or URLs of online gambling sites were shown on the site.

Third party payment platforms were not immune to the anti-online gambling campaign, and were also relentlessly shut down since they provided services to the online gambling industry.

The Xinghua news agency explains that part of the reason the anti-online gambling campaign has been so successful is because of the companies and organizations that are all working hand in hand to try and destroy the online gambling industry in China. Some of these organizations are the People’s Bank of China, the Supreme People’s Court, the China Banking Regulatory Commission, and of course, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Online gambling is not the only online industry that the Chinese government wishes to eradicate. There are a number of other sites, including sex sites, and a number of political sites that do not agree with the Chinese government’s point of view that have also been under the Chinese government’s scrutiny. The current campaign, however, went to great lengths to get rid of online gambling, and also to scare off any foreign online gambling operators from attempting to offer their wares to Chinese citizens.