Chinese Online Gambling Law Enacted

August 10, 2010 | News Category: Gaming Law

0 Comments

The new Chinese online gambling laws have taken effect as of August 1st, 2010. In July, the Chinese government created a new law that affects online gambling, and scheduled it to begin the next month. Although the law is not solely regarding online gambling, restrictions on online gambling are certainly a part of it.

The law that was created is regarding the access to the Internet for those residing in China, and part of the focus of the law is connected to online casinos and online poker rooms.

The new law has not banned online gambling, however, there are some new guidelines that have been set up. The guidelines are somewhat vague, making them difficult to follow, and requiring a measure of guesswork on the part of the Internet Service Providers.

The law was created ostensibly to protect minors. A line in the law reads that “online games targeting minors must be free of content that can lead to the imitation of behavior that violates social morals of the law.”

Of course, “social morals” has not been defined, and the wording is most definitely vague, making it difficult to ensure that the law will be complied with.

The law also makes it the responsibility of Internet companies to ensure that they limit the time that minors may play online games at their various websites. This reduction in the hours is supposed to be in place in order to “prevent addiction.” However, there is no guideline as to how much the hours need to be reduced, which leave the law open to interpretation. It also means that it is possible for the Internet companies to get it wrong, and could have legal implications for the companies offering online games.

The law states that all who wish to gamble online must register using their real names, and that they must provide proof of their name, as well as their real age when registering.

There are about 420 million Chinese people who use the Internet, although not all gamble online. It is estimated that the online gambling market is worth a value of about $800 million each year. It is unclear at this time whether these new laws will have any impact on the Chinese online gambling market as far as players are concerned, and also whether the laws will have any impact on the income generated from Chinese online gambling.

In countries where the online gambling market is successfully regulated, there are laws regarding age restrictions, and the need to give out correct names and ages, and proof of such information. It simply seems that at this time, the Chinese government is leaving too much room for interpretation in their new law.