China continues to expand gambling blacklist

The Ministry of Culture and Tourism is preparing a third selection of overseas gambling destinations to add to its blacklist.

China.- Chinese authorities have said they have added more overseas gambling destinations to the country’s blacklist of destinations to which cross-border transfers are controlled.

Despite the fact that the original list has yet to made public, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism said it would work with other government departments to “suspend tour groups and arrangement of tourist visas for outbound travel to the recently added destinations.”

According to authorities, the so-called blacklist aims to “safeguard the lives and financial safety of Chinese citizens.”

The Ministry stated: “We will adopt measures to suspend outbound tour groups and the arrangement of tourist visas for trips to these cities and attractions abroad that are on the blacklist.”

The blacklist was established in 2020 and is compiled through work by multiple departments, including the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Public Security.

In January, a second selection of destinations was added to the list, but none of the content of the list has been made public. Analysts assume the list includes Australia, Cambodia, the Philippines and Vietnam, which are all popular casino destinations for Chinese customers.

In the first nine months of 2020, China’s crusade against cross-border gambling operations detected funds of 1CNY trillion (US$149.6bn).

In May, the Ministry of Public Security announced that police had investigated more than 18,000 cross-border gambling cases since 2020 and had arrested 110,000 people.

According to Zhao Kezhi, the minister of public security, police also detected 2,800 illegal payment platforms, more than 3,400 gambling platforms and over 2,200 gambling promotion platforms.

Police also raided underground banks and 1,400 illegal technical teams connected to cross-border gambling.