In China, both online and land-based gambling are illegal – but, some crafty individuals managed to host an online gambling network. The police have recently uncovered this underground gambling operation, busting over 1000 punters who were illegally wagering on lottery games. Two people from Guangdong province were in charge of the operation.
They developed about 200 online gambling sites that were run on servers based in Thailand and rented them out for ¥70,000 to ¥100,000 a month. Of all of the individuals who were arrested in the blitz, 15 are suspected of developing and operating gambling platforms. 1,000 individuals have allegedly rented the platforms to run their own online gambling sites. Overall, ¥300 million (AUD$ 69 million) were seized.
"Most of the gambling money was not frozen, because the transactions were done through cash and illegal private banks," says Yu Canxian, head of the police’s cyber crime unit. A ban on gambling has been in place in China since 1949. Since then, only government-operated lotteries have been permitted.
Gamblers in China wanted another outlet, so hundreds of thousands of punters joined these illegal websites to bet on the results of various Chinese lotteries. Over 100 of the sites offered players the chance to bet on the “Shi Shi Cai” lottery, and brought in ¥400 billion in wagers every month. The crackdown on illegal gambling has extended into the land-based market.
Despite gambling being illegal in Macau, it has caused a decline in profits across the gambling capital. Many Chinese gamblers fear being scrutinised for playing in Macau as authorities crack down on corruption. As such, Australian casinos are seeing an influx of Chinese high roller players.
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