China losing $75 billion to online gambling

Peking University's China Public Interest Lottery Research Institute has found that 600 billion yan, approximately $75 billion, leaves the country each year through various online gambling activities.

Despite being illegal, online gambling continues to grow in the country.

The amount of money leaving the nation through gambling is 15 times the amount issued by the China Lottery and the China Sports Lottery in 2003, and equals the 2004 national tourist revenue.

The China News Service reported that during the World Cup this year, China and Southeast Asian countries accounted for 60 percent of the €10 billion gambled on the event.

Chinese authorities have been cracking down on the illegal gambling in the country, especially since it may involve large sums of money and can easily develop into criminal activities that are an even great security threat to the nation.

Police have broken up several big online gambling rackets in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dongguan and Zhaoqing. Most notable are the cases in Shenzhen where local police cracked down on 15 football gambling cases, arresting 53 people and confiscating gambling funds and equipment totaling 260,000 yean as well as freezing 20 million yuan of gambling funds.

The police aren't the only ones working to curb online gambling in China. In early March, the Internet Society of China's Internet News Service Work Committee announced that China's top Internet providers had pledged to self-regulate gaming content among other "unhealthy" content.

courtesy of Sarah Polson

News Added: 19 July, 2006

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