Mainland China residents involved in “cross-border gambling crimes” were instructed either to “turn themselves in” to the authorities by April 30, or to report –and assist a judicial investigation into such crimes. The call came in a joint announcement by three mainland law-enforcement bodies.
Those crimes are related to “backers and investors of the gaming groups outside China that solicit our people to gamble”. People are also being investigated, said the authorities, without naming them. China pressure intensifies on overseas gambling and online gambling activity. But the moves were targeted at Macau’s casino operations.
Police had already taken up legal enforcement against 35,000 people throughout the country that were allegedly involved in gambling activities during 2020.
Changes to China’s criminal code, to take effect from March 1, make it illegal for anyone to assist others in “cross-border gambling”.
Analysts DS Kim and Derek Choi, of JP Morgan Securities (Asia Pacific) Ltd stated: “While the scope of the law… probably covers gambling in Macau, we don’t think the crackdown itself is targeting Macau casino operations.”
According to Friday’s briefing, if mainland residents involved in “cross-border gambling crimes” confess to the authorities by April-end, they will be shown leniency by the country’s judges. China’s Ministry of Public Security, the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate hosted the briefing.
The goal is to completely paralyze the soliciting networks by the gambling groups working outside the country that targeted Chinese people.
With the criminal law amendment, the “target of penalties” was the “casinos” operators, actual controllers, investors, managers or those that profit from casinos, gambling rooms and gambling tables; the builders, providers and users of the online gambling sites and the relevant applications, as well as the funders, managers and agents that profit from it.
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