Gambling in China is illegal under Chinese law and has been officially outlawed since the Communist Party took power in 1949. Any form of gambling by Chinese citizens, including online-gambling, gambling overseas, opening casinos overseas to attract citizens of China as primary customers, is considered illegal. Mar 29, 2017 China is to crackdown on efforts to lure its citizens to gamble in overseas casinos, state media reported. The campaign will also target online gambling available on the mainland, the state-run. China plans to crack down on the online gaming and gambling industry, including the banks, financial institutions and websites that support it, the Ministry of Public Security advised in a. Jun 10, 2019 We saw such instances on a huge scale in China and Norway last year. “This is another reason why Apple is taking a stricter stance. By not taking proactive steps to prevent nonapproved and noncompliant apps from entering its local app stores, it put more risk on its own business.” Un’appy days ahead for online gambling.

CHINA will launch a six-month crackdown on rampant online gambling, saying the growing industry is causing large flows of money out of the country.

Gambling has been outlawed in China since the Communist Party came to power in 1949, but that has not stopped a thriving underground industry.

The campaign, which will last until August, will be carried out by eight government agencies, including the Ministry of Public Security, the central bank and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Online gambling 'has caused large cash outflows from the country and seriously disturbed social and economic order,' said a statement posted on the public security ministry's Web site Monday.

The campaign aims to 'bust a number of syndicates from home and abroad that collude to organise gambling activities on the Internet and severely punish the illegal rings,' it said.

Authorities will also clamp down on underground banks and third party payment platforms that provide cash transfer services for gambling sites, as well as Internet operators that provide Web access services, it said.

'(We) will clean up gambling information and Web sites across the board,' the statement said.

China Internet Crackdown

The campaign is the latest in a series of steps the government has taken to strengthen control over Internet use, which is expanding at a dizzying pace in China.

China has the world's largest online population with at least 384 million users, according to official figures.

The government censors the web to curb what it considers 'unhealthy' content including porn and violence - using a system known as the 'Great Firewall of China.'

Critics claim a primary aim of the system is to prevent the posting of information that challenges the ruling Communist Party.

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According to official figures, 5,394 people were arrested last year under a nationwide Internet porn crackdown and 9,000 illegal porn-related sites were shut down.

Originally published asChina to crack down on online gambling

The Chinese government is reportedly shutting the door to poker’s final frontier.

According to Macau-based publication Inside Asian Gaming, China will launch a sweeping crackdown on online poker applications and stop recognizing the game as a competitive sport beginning June 1.

Beijing and the Chinese government have yet to announce the ban. However, all poker apps will be shut down and removed from app stores, according to Inside Asian Gaming. Plus, promoting poker and social poker apps on social media channels, like the popular WeChat and Weibo, will also be banned.

Poker in China

Poker in China exists almost exclusively on these social poker apps. As a result, the ban will have a major impact on the industry. Particularly, in a country of 1.4 billion people long believed to offer the greatest opportunity for future growth.

Real-money online and live poker is basically illegal in China, outside of special administrative regions like Macau that allow gambling.

However, live tournament poker has seen rapid growth in the country since Chinese authorities raided and shut down the PokerStars APPT Nanjing Millions event, co-hosted by PokerStars and Beijing’s Star Poker Club in April 2015.

Social poker app satellites have fueled much of the growth on the live tournament scene.

Social poker apps run by companies like Boyaa, Tencent, Alisports (Alibaba), and Ourgame, owners of the World Poker Tour, are used to qualify players for live events in China.

Industry reaction

According to Inside Asian Gaming, Boyaa stock dropped 12 percent immediately following news of the ban. Boyaa had just filed its 2017 Annual Report. It claimed its third Boyaa Poker Tour event at the end of 2017 was a success. Results included increased brand awareness and player loyalty.

The report also indicated Boyaa’s revenue is on the rise, mostly through poker.

Additionally, Ourgame, which bought the WPT for $35 million in 2015, immediately announced it will adjust its poker-related activities in Mainland China to respect the ban.

A statement on the company’s website says Ourgame will “continue to introduce and hold more top-level intellectual sports events and promote the global spread of chess and card culture,” in China, with no mention of poker at all.

Plus, Tencent removed its World Series of Poker app from app stores. Tencent just signed a multi-year agreement with Caesars Interactive Entertainment and the WSOP to spread the brand throughout Asia in July 2017. The deal involved poker staff training, WSOP merchandise rights, and media content distribution and production rights. Plus, the Tencent Poker free-to-play social poker app added a WSOP branded game.

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Poker could suffer across Asia

China Plans Online Gambling Crackdown Games

Chinese players have also been partly responsible for the growth of poker across Asia. In fact, fields are quite often 50 percent Chinese players in major tournaments across the region.

Events outside of China draw Chinese players almost exclusively through social media promotion. Therefore, the social media promotion ban could have a disastrous effect on tournament field sizes across Asia.

Hong Kong Poker Players Association managing director Stephen Lai told the South China Morning Post newspaper the news is a huge blow to Chinese poker and poker all over Asia:

“We have been very happy that China have been allowing social gaming, not for money, so that people from China have a chance to practice and travel around Asia and beyond to play poker, where it is legal to do so. Now, with the alleged policy change, there will be no play money poker in China, and you can’t talk about poker on social media. Chinese players won’t have a chance to practice, and they won’t get to know about legal poker events around Asia. Poker has gone back to square one in China.”