China Not Next

It looks like Asia is the next frontier as far as online slots go, because many countries such as Japan and China have long been traditionally and strictly opposed to the idea of online or land casino gambling. The latest news however is that Japan is starting to look into the possibility of allowing gambling casinos, now that Singapore and other Asian countries have opened their markets and the governments have benefited and been quite profitable. They have been meeting with several online casino providers to find out about the logistics of everything, and to see some numbers and projections.

China however, is doing no such thing. They are still continuing to crack down on any and all suspicious gambling activity and issuing some of the toughest punishments around. The World Cup of almost three years ago inspired  a few gambling rings that were busted royally, and now each person involved is facing years and years  of prison time. Furthermore, these people will also be responsible for paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines, in addition to their prison sentence.

Not only punishing those who were at fault but also in hopes of deterring people from trying a similar scheme, the government is not budging at all. There is zero leniency. It’s understandable, given that there are so many people interested in logging onto online casinos in China. While the US certainly has a multitude of users that would love to gain access to online slots, China has at least 20 million more people chomping at the bit. While the US inches closer and closer to regulation and legalization, China is absolutely nowhere near it.

Back to February 2009 Archive.