CHINESE THREATS, BUT GAMBLING ONLINE CONTINUES

5/25/10 – According to a report in the Chinese publication Global Times, the threats by Beijing enforcement agencies to clampdown on World Cup football betting are being ignored by many online sports betting sites that continue to evade police raids.
 
The Global Times claims that such sites have "…recently exploded in popularity and many are still online."
 
The manager of one Guangzhou-based outfit, allegedly an international agent for several foreign sports gambling websites, told the Global Times reporter that World Cup gambling began heating up three months ago, and that more than a million yuan ($146 500) has already been wagered with his organisation for the match between Greece and South Korea.
 
Describing online betting, he told the journalist: "People can take part at any time," and added that many of the site's users are overseas students from Japan and Australia studying in Beijing and Shanghai.
 
"The minimum bet is 2 000 yuan ($293)," he revealed, boasting that even though online gambling is illegal on the Chinese mainland, police have never raided his organisation since its start 9 years ago. "Our users use wireless networks and not broadband networks to escape the cyber cops," he said.
 
Wang Deyi, a Beijing lawyer, told the Global Times that online gambling website operators were relatively difficult to police but that such websites would be definitely shut down if detected by the police.