China Reports Decline In Cross Border Gambling Activity
China decided to take stringent action in 2020 on curbing the outflow of capital through cross border gambling transactions. Billions of yuan was flowing out of the country as junket operators and casino operators around the world teamed up to attract VIP gamblers from China to their overseas casinos and online gambling sites.
Since gambling is banned in China, junket operators were wooing Chinese to travel to overseas locations like South Korea, the Philippines and Australia to gamble at their casinos. Hundreds of illegal online casinos were also launched specifically to target online gamblers in China.
China launched a special campaign in 2020 designed to stop cross border gambling transactions. A special task force was established who went after illegal gambling sites and individuals and companies that encouraged cross border gambling activity.
The Ministry of Public Security has confirmed that their cross border gambling crackdown in 2020 has been very successful as over 17,000 cross border gambling transactions were stopped, over 3400 illegal online gambling sites were shutdown, underground banks and 2800 illegal payment gateways were banned and over 110,000 individuals were investigated by the authorities.
Those numbers give you an idea as to how serious China is about preventing illegal gambling and cross border gambling transactions. It also shows us how many people behind the scenes were working on putting an end to cross border gambling. Chinese authorities said that they were pleased to see a massive decline in cross border gambling activity in 2020.
The crackdown will continue in 2020 as China is very keen on bringing a complete halt to all forms of cross border gambling tourism and transactions. China also amended its criminal law to now make it a punishable offense for anyone engaged in cross border gambling activities.
The authorities have called on Chinese residents who have engaged in cross border gambling in the past to turn themselves into the police voluntarily and receive a lesser punishment for their cooperation.
Expect Further Decline In Cross Border Gambling
China has deliberately broadcast its action and results on the cross border gambling industry in an effort to send a strong message to both organizations and individuals involved in this process. China recently cancelled the passports of a number of residents who had ties to cross border gambling.
The junket activity in Macau has drastically reduced since China rolled out its new criminal code on March 1 that made it punishable for anyone indulging in cross border activity.
David WalkerAuthor
David is our resident 'down under' contributor, letting us know what is going on in the southern hemisphere, he is also keen blackjack player
