China made changes to its criminal law towards the end of 2020 with the aim to stop cross border gambling. Beijing has been concerned for some time now that Chinese gamblers were taking too much money out of the country to gambling at overseas casinos.
The new law is expected to hit junket operators whose main business is to ferry VIP gamblers to foreign casinos and help them spend millions of dollars. The new law is expected to hurt junket operators and discourage VIP gamblers from going overseas to gamble.
China is also keeping a close watch on the illegal online gambling industry. Stats show that on average, 11 million Chinese gambling online every day by accessing illegal online casino sites and mobile betting apps.
The highest record of Chinese gambling online hit 11.4 million on December 9.
The popular Guangdong province tops the list for the most number of gamblers with 2.7 million gambling online. The capital city of Beijing is second on the list with 640,000 online gamblers. While online gambling is banned in China, Chinese gamblers are using Virtual Private Networks (VPN) to bypass government firewalls and access these gambling sites.
A number of gambling operators have setup operations in neighbouring countries like the Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar and Malaysia to specifically target Chinese players.
Beijing Continues iGaming Crackdown
Beijing has recognized the growth of the illegal online gambling market in China and is looking to come down hard on violators. China has already made a blacklist of countries that are fostering these gambling companies who are specifically targeting Chinese players.
A lot of these overseas gambling companies hire Chinese nationals in an effort to service the Chinese market. Recent sting operations in these countries have resulted in over 600 Chinese nationals being arrested. These sting operations were done as authorities from these countries worked together with Chinese authorities.
China has also confirmed that it has closed over 2,200 illegal gambling firms, blocked close to 2,000 illegal payment methods, banned over 1,100 online casino affiliate sites and cracked down on nearly 900 technical support hubs that fostered online gambling activities that targeted the Chinese market.
China has also issued a stern warning to its citizens informing them not to travel overseas for the purpose of gambling and also from engaging in illegal online gambling activities.