At least this crackdown didn’t involve running people over with tanks. China has vowed to crack down on gambling in the country and has been doing just that. A recent raid in the province of Yunnan has resulted in an arrest of 21 suspects accused of running an illegal online gambling operation. In addition, their bank accounts containing approximately ¥550,000 have been frozen.

Back in February, China’s Ministry of Public Security placed a new emphasis on putting an end to online gambling in the Middle Kingdom. Since that time, they have arrested over 3,600 suspects and frozen over ¥700 million in funds, according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency.

Gambling – both online and land-based – has been banned in mainland China since the communist government took power in 1949. I think it’s because they don’t like an individual having an influence over whether their amount of money gets larger or smaller. The government wants to be the one that decides that (after all, there are state-run lotteries).

With the World Cup taking place in South Africa, China is currently placing an emphasis on sports betting. All overseas online casinos and sports books are banned from accepting Chinese customers. China monitors those sites to look for activity from its citizens. If any get through, there can be swift “justice” exacted upon the Chinese citizen. Of course, if you’re a Chinese citizen, there’s a good chance that the Communist Party of China monitors everything you do anyway, as we have found from the controversy surrounding their hacking of Gmail.

China defends controlling how people spend their money, what information they get from the news, and what terms they can search on the internet on the grounds that they are protecting the nation by removing things that would harm the people. Letting people gamble is bad because it’s not good for them. Engaging in nuclear proliferation with North Korea – a nation that might be crazy enough to start a nuclear holocaust, denying freedom of religion, freedom of property and the right to vote for their national leaders is what’s best for the people, though.

Tags: China gambling, China gambling crackdown, China oppression, Chinese oppression, gambling laws, online gambling, World Cup betting

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