China’s online gambling crackdown

You didn’t have to be Nostradamus to see this one coming, and thanks to  Casinomaven for bringing the news to our attention.

China’s decided to turn it’s internet filtering blowtorch onto net gambling in a crackdown that, according to a Ministry of Public Security will target “major and severe cases, arrest domestic and foreign groups that organize online gambling and severely punish criminals.”

From February to August Beijing plans to eradicate an industry that it describes as thriving, and “has caused large amounts of money to flow out of China and disturbed the country’s social and economic order”.

So is this the usual political rhetoric or is there bite behind the bark?  Only a very brave or stupid operator would bank on on it being the former.

China’s track record on crackdowns says it all.  Leaving offline crackdowns aside (love the reference to Tiananmen in the pic), their censorship efforts on the internet have come to be known as the Great Firewall of China.  If any content  isn’t deemed (by the Goverment) as fit for Chinese resident consumption, then its days are numbered.

Just asked Google.  After removing all filters that Beijing instructed them to place on search results, they have been effectively blocked.  YouTube was blocked last year after refusing to remove video footage of injuries to Tibetan protesters, and a host of social networking sites cannot be accessed from China because they have become the communication method of choice for political dissidents.

Online gambling operators are a pretty persistent bunch and seem to operate very much on the basis of where there’s a will there’s  a way.   And up against more benign regimes, their persistent approach seem to have largely paid dividends.  But China’s  a very different beast.

It’s going to be a very interesting few months for Chinese facing online gambling operations that’s for sure.