The Chinese Ministry of Public Security has outlined major and obvious successes in tackling illegal cross-border gambling and related criminals by shutting down 368 illegal online gaming platforms, detecting 257 cases and arresting 11,500 suspects since the end of February.
The Minister of Public Security, Zhao Kezhi, issued an instruction on 28 February 2020 for officials to focus on investigating cross-border gaming and online gaming criminals.
On 22 June, the Ministry of Public Security announced they had tracked down RMB229 billion (US$32.4 billion) in related funds and compiled a “black-list” of gamblers.
The Ministry of Public Security listed 10 “typical cases” which were discovered in Zhuhai and Shenzhen city in Guangdong province, Shanghai and the provinces of Gansu, Shandong, Guangxi, Yunan and Heilongjiang. None related to Macau.
Cases related to online gambling utilized mobile applications and online games to set up gambling platforms in order to solicit gamblers. One case in Zhuhai involved a tech company which secretly provided technical support for offshore casinos located in various Southeast Asian countries.
Another case in Zaozhuang, Shandong province, saw gaming funds totaling RMB1 billion (US$142 million) transferred to offshore casinos through self-developed online payment platforms.
Chinese police also found criminal entities had arranged for Chinese citizens to cross the border at Lincang in Yunnan province to gamble in Myanmar.
Myanmar police coordinated with China’s Minstry of Public Security to extradite suspects back to China.
On 5 June, the Ministry of Public Security also launched an online platform through which it has encouraged members of the public to report suspected cross-border gambling criminals. As reported by Macau Business, anyone providing information playing an important role verifying a crime will receive a reward.
The Ministry pledged to cut off all “capital, technical, promotion and personnel chains” related to cross-border gambling, and said it will strengthen coordination with other departments in order to “reverse the high-incidence trend” of cross-border criminals.
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