As if it didn’t have anything more serious to contend with these days, the Chinese government announced recently that it plans to take even more stringent steps to tackle the problem of illegal gambling. The country’s Minister of Public Security, Zhao Kezhi said that his office is mulling the publication of an online gambling blacklist. He threatened to investigate all online gambling operations and promised to destroy the operators behind the sites.
The minister said that for the measures to truly work, his country requires the cooperation of other nations, especially neighboring Asian countries. He was referring specifically to Malaysia and Cambodia, where several arrests took place last year, connected to off-shore gambling operators targeting Chinese players.
One country that is taking an adamant stand against China’s demands for joint-strike operations is the Philippines. President Rodrigo Duterte has said that he will not be pressurized into banning Philippines Offshore Gambling Operators, known as POGOs, since this could have negative economic impact on his country and cause the loss of thousands of jobs.
In a tit-for-tat move, the Chinese government voided the passports of several of its citizens who were found to be working for Philippines-based online gambling businesses.
China is also seeking to do away with all types of gambling, making the Sports and Welfare Lotteries, run by the government, the only form of legal gambling across the nation.
