Recap 2009: China Edition
The Chinese government is not a fan of online casino gambling and they have not
made a secret of that fact. Like the United States, the Chinese government
announced plans to firmly block the foreign online casinos from access Chinese
citizens. Unlike the US though, the Chinese government has made internet
gambling wholly illegal and the communist officials do not have qualms with
filtering the internet content before it ever reaches the Chinese people. While
this is a viable way to block unfavorable content, it’s not widely accepted as
appropriate by Western governments because it limits the internet freedoms of
the people in the country and it also sets a dangerous precedence that can then
be used to filter content on a much higher level beyond just the online gambling
companies.
Over the past year the Chinese government has amped up its efforts to put a
strong stop to illegal online casino gambling rings operating in the market –
that meant a whole lot of raids, busts, and arrests. 2009 was not a good year to
operate illegally in China because the officials were very, very focused on the
online casino channels in particular. The number of arrests shot higher
throughout the year as more and more raids unearthed a large number of internet
betting rings. As the government makes these arrests, the punishments are harsh
in the hopes that this will act as a deterrent to continued illegal activity.
Also a growing concern in China is the increasingly levels of match fixing
coming out of the market. In conjunction with the illegal online casino gambling
rings a lot of illegal gambling activity is threatening the integrity of the
soccer sporting industry in Europe. European officials are working with
bookmakers to limit this impact, and the Chinese government has also more
recently begun to really crack down on this illegal activity. |