China reaffirms its gambling clamp down
China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate has pledged to continue fighting against illegal cross-border gambling.
Asia Gaming Brief reports that just days after ordering the arrest of Macau junket boss Alvin Chau, director of the SPP’s First Prosecutor’s Office Miao Shengming said that during the first nine months of 2021, authorities prosecuted 13,329 overseas gaming crimes, of which 1,376 crimes related to the setting up of casino operations, with a total of 62,238 individuals accused.
The procuratorate pointed to the influence of the internet in pushing traditional gambling online.
The SPP said that criminal syndicates would facilitate offshore gambling for citizens at overseas casinos under the pretext that gambling abroad is legal, while others would disguise gambling apps as recreational online poker or chess to attract users.
Gambling-related crimes in the spotlight
The crimes cause a huge outflow of funds and breed other crimes such as internet fraud, extortion, illegal detention, and illegal border crossings to occur, leading to national economic and social issues.
The SPP said it will continue to strengthen its fight against cross-border and internet-related gambling crime.
Meanwhile, Macau’s Secretary for Security Wong Sio Chank also pledged to closely monitor the evolution of gambling-related crimes.
“The Judiciary Police will improve the functioning of the deployment and inspection mechanism and carry out unannounced raids, with a view to effectively respond to the occurrence of criminal activities or sudden incidents in gaming establishments,” Wong said.
The secretary has pledged to continue its investigation of fake illegal gambling websites and websites suspected of being engaged in fraud, as well as combating cyber crime.
Wong said that in the first nine month of the year, there was a 28 per cent increase in illicit gaming crimes, including 31 kidnapping cases related to gaming.
There were also five cases of setting up illegal gambling websites, three online gambling cases and 164 fraud cases inside casinos involving illegal currency exchange.
Illegal gambling advertising draws ire of regulator
Liquor and Gaming New South Wales is clamping down on gambling advertising, having issued one of Australia’s leading gambling operators with a $135,000 fine.
Casino.org reports that compliance director for Liquor and Gaming NSW Marcel Savary said that the message was not reaching some wagering businesses.
He said they continue to disregard NSW’ gambling advertising laws.
Savary said the regulator already had 119 prosecutions for breaching the provisions, up from 31 in 2020, against seven operators.
“Research by the NSW Office of Responsible Gambling in 2020 revealed the vast majority of the community is not happy with the current style of wagering advertising, with 81 per cent believing gambling advertising increases the risk of people developing a gambling problem,” Savary said.
Savary added that there is a decline in participation of many forms of gambling in NSW, but an increase in the number of online bets.
The latter accounts for 70 per cent of all betting on sport and 37 per cent on race betting.
“Liquor and Gaming NSW consistently expresses concerns to industry about gambling advertising, and will continue to monitor compliance with these laws and take strong action for serious and blatant offending,” he asserted.
Sportsbet was found guilty of a few missteps by the regulator.
Account owners are said to have received prohibited gambling marketing material via email from Sportsbet from October 2020 to March 2021.
After opting out of direct marketing, they were still receiving the ads.
