Chinese Citizens Who Have Gambled Cross-Border Asked To Surrender

China made it clear earlier this year that it was going to come down hard on organizations and individuals that encouraged cross-border gambling. Beijing made changes to its criminal laws making it illegal for anyone to assist Chinese residents in cross-border gambling. The new law comes into play from March 1, 2021.

China reiterated its stance towards cross-border gambling this late last week and confirmed that it was keeping a close watch on individuals and organizations who were looking at encouraging and luring Mainland China residents to engage in gambling related activities.

China also sent out a warning to all Chinese residents who had engaged in such cross-border gambling activities and asked them to surrender before April 30, 2021 to the authorities. These individuals were asked to surrender and also assist the authorities uncover more information regarding cross-border gambling activities.

Individuals who voluntarily surrender before the authorities before April 30 have been promised leniency with their cases. The authorities confirmed that over 35,000 people are currently being investigated for assisting in cross-border gambling activities that took place in 2020.

Zero Tolerance Towards Cross-Border Gambling

Chinese authorities are allegedly targeting overseas operators and junket operators whose main focus is the Chinese market. Beijing has wanted to put a stop of billions of yuan flowing out of the country due to overseas gambling activities.

Junket operators tie up with overseas casinos in places like the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, South Korea and Australia to lure VIP Chinese gamblers with special perks. Offshore online casinos also target Chinese gamblers and make lots of money on a daily basis. These organizations and online casino sites will be the focus of the Chinese authorities.

Sanford C. Bernstein Ltd confirmed this in their report on China but stated that Macau’s casinos will not be the target of this cross-border gambling crackdown. Macau’s casino industry has been massively dented financially due to the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020.

Macau’s casinos are looking to recover slowly but surely in 2021. If Beijing targets Macau with the new cross-border gambling crackdown, it could pose huge problems for Macau’s six casino operators and cost them billions of dollars in 2021.

Macau is expected to work closely together with Beijing to flush out any junket operators and individuals who might be based in Macau and facilitating cross-border gambling.