Gambling in the People's Republic of China is illegal undernational law[1] and has been officially outlawed since theChinese Communist Party (CCP)took power in 1949.[2] Any form of gambling by Chinese citizens, including online-gambling, gambling overseas, opening casinos overseas to attract citizens of China as primary customers, is considered illegal.[3] In practice however, Chinese citizens participate in state-runlotteries, regularly travel to legalgambling centers overseas or in thespecial administrative regions ofHong Kong andMacau, and access gaming through offshore based proxy betting andonline gambling companies.
Gambling is generally illegal in China.[4]: 101
Two state-runlotteries exist,[4]: 101 the Welfare Lottery and the Sports Lottery, set up in 1987 and 1994, respectively. TheChinese government does not legally consider the lotteries a form of gambling.[5] Illegal gambling in China remains common, including unofficial lotteries, clandestine casinos, and betting in games such asmahjong and variouscard games. In 2010,The Daily Telegraph (UK) reported that an estimated one trillionyuan are wagered in illegal gambling every year in China.Problem gambling exists in the country, and may be more prevalent than in countries with legalized gambling.[1]Online gambling is another outlet for illegal gambling in the country.[5]
In June 2018, the Chinese Government banned all online poker applications. App stores had to remove all poker related applications, and the promotion of poker in general via all social media channels in China (such asWeChat andWeibo) were forbidden.[6]
As authorities intensify efforts to curb such activities, gambling in secluded locations, and mobile gambling setups designed to evade police detection, are increasingly prevalent, particularly in rural regions of provinces likeYunnan,Shanxi, andAnhui.[7]
Macau is aspecial administrative region of China and is the only place in China where casino gambling is legal.[8]: 5
Gambling inMacau has been legal since the 1850s, when it was aPortuguese colony. The region has a history of gambling on traditional Chinese games. Gambling in Macau now primarily takes place in Western-stylecasinos; in 2007, Macau overtook theLas Vegas Strip in gaming revenues. As of 2016[update],[9] 38 casinos operate in Macau, and the region's annual gambling revenues exceed US$27.9 billion.[10]
On 20 December 2024,CCP general secretaryXi Jinping, while speaking on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Macau's return from Portuguese to China, encouraged the region to diversify its economy away from casinos.[11][12]
While some aspects ofmainland Chinese law apply in Hong Kong, certain forms of gambling are legal and regulated inHong Kong. TheLaw of Hong Kong is based on Englishcommon law, having been a British territoryuntil 1997. Gambling in Hong Kong has been regulated since 1977.[13] TheHong Kong Jockey Club organizes much of the legal betting in the region.Melco Resorts & Entertainment andGalaxy Entertainment Group both operate casinos in neighboring Macau but maintain their corporate headquarters in Hong Kong.
The domestic Chinese demand for gambling is significant.[4]: 101 Legal restrictions on onshore gambling in mainland China have contributed to the growth of overseas and online gambling sites that cater to Chinese nationals.Integrated gaming resorts inSingapore,Australia,South Korea,Vietnam,Cambodia and thePhilippines welcome growing numbers of Chinese tourists. Mongolia, a neighbour of China, is also looking into legalizing gambling and casinos for Chinese tourists.[14]
Several gambling sites previously existed along theChina-Laos border andChina-Myanmar border to attract Chinese tourists.[4]: 101 In Myanmar, Mongla was site for casinos and other entertainment operations that are illegal in China, as wasBoten in Laos.[4]: 101 Following patterns of violence against Chinese tourists, the Chinese government pressured Myanmar and Laos to shut down these sites.[4]: 101–102 As of at least 2024, the trend in both Myanmar and Laos is for casinos seeking to attract Chinese tourists to be set up further away from the Chinese border.[4]: 102
As in-person visits to offshore gambling venues can be both time-consuming and attract the attention of law enforcement, proxy betting has grown in popularity, especially for VIP clients wishing to discreetly place high stakes bets. In proxy betting, clients communicate with staffers wearing headsets at baccarat tables in offshore casinos. Proxy betting was outlawed in Macau in 2016 and has never been permitted in Australia or Singapore casinos, but now accounts for 40 percent of the $1 billion VIP gaming market in the Philippines, according to brokerage CICC.[15]
Online gambling in mainland China remains illegal, however, internet traffic routed viaVPNs, underground banking networks, and payment platforms enable mainland Chinese customers to access and remit funds to online gaming sites. According to 2019 estimates published in Economic Information Daily, an affiliate of state-owned news agencyXinhua, the annual amount bet through online gambling in the Mainland is more than one trillion yuan (US$145 billion), equivalent to nearly twice the annual income of China's officially sanctioned lotteries.[16]
In October 2014,The Guardian newspaper reported that one major online site,Bet365 had been taking bets from Chinese citizens by using obscure domain names to avoid government web censorship.[17]
In the Philippines, PresidentRodrigo Duterte in 2016 started thePhilippine Offshore Gaming Operations (POGO) program to allow onlinegambling in major cities.[4]: 102 Under POGO, the state-ownedPhilippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation issued licenses to be used for service providers to offer online gambling.[4]: 102 Most of the companies which obtained POGO licenses were Chinese, and their businesses primarily catered to the ethnic Chinese community at-large.[4]: 102 Over three years beginning in 2016, at least 100,000 Chinese nationals were estimated to have moved to Manila to work for online gambling operators as marketing agents, tech support specialists and IT engineers to serve Mandarin-speaking clientele.[18] To side step restrictions on direct marketing of online gambling in mainland Chinese print or social media, many online gaming sites seeking to attract Chinese customers have become shirt sponsors forEnglish Premier League football teams.Dafabet's sponsorship ofFulham FC and W88's sponsorship ofWolverhampton Wanderers are just two examples of this trend.
The Chinese government sought to persuade the Philippines to ban online gambling.[4]: 103–104 In the view of the Chinese government, online gaming undermines Chinese financial institutions and creates crime and social problems in China.[4]: 104 The Duterte government did not want to restrain the online gaming industry because of the huge revenues it produced for the state, although after an August 2019 meeting between Duterte andChinese leaderXi Jinping, the Philippines increased its raids on illegal gambling operators.[4]: 104 After the election of presidential election ofBongbong Marcos, the Philippines took a harsher stance against online gambling, and in September 2022, thePhilippines Department of Justice announced that it would shut down more than 100 online gambling operators and deport approximately 40,000 Chinese nationals working in the online gambling sector.[4]: 104
Before 2020, a significant number of Chinese online gambling operations operated fromCambodia, particularlySihanoukville.[4]: 105–106 In 2018, Cambodia and China established a joint law enforcement partnership.[4]: 106 In 2019, they opened the National Police's Anti-Technology Crime Division joint operations center inPhnom Penh.[4]: 106 A day after the center's inauguration, more than 100 Chinese were arrested and deported from Cambodia to China to be prosecuted.[4]: 106 Cambodia banned online gambling effective in 2020.[4]: 106 Many of the Chinese gambling operators who left Cambodia after the ban did not return to China.[4]: 107 Instead, many migrated toKaren State, Myanmar, in theMyanmar-Thai border region where they established gambling operations.[4]: 107
In 2024, the Chinese Ministry of Public Security dismantled more than 4,500 online gambling platforms.[19]
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Dice games have historically been a popular form of gambling in China.[20] Among the oldest recorded accounts of gambling date back to 3,000 years ago in China where "keno" was first played to fund the construction of the Great Wall.[21]
Liubo is the earliest gambling game in China, which was reportedly invented by Wu Cau, a minister ofXia Jie. This game was played by 2 or 4 persons. Following this invention, Wu Cao came to be worshipped by the gambling stall owners duringQing Dynasty.[22] The historical records show Liubo was popular among nobles or the upper class society during theShang Dynasty. During the times of Xia and Shang, the nature of gambling was mainly associated with leisure and entertainment. The wagering elements were slowly added into these games during 700 BCE - 476 BCE as gambling gained popularity among the common people.[22] Other popular games werechess,kickball,pitch-pot,cock- anddog fighting.[23]
BothConfucius andMencius commented on gambling. While the former saw it as a form of leisure, the latter saw it as one of the five sinful behaviours, as it made people neglect their duties. Scholars ofLegalism likeLi Kui andShang Yang strongly opposed gambling.[24]
Under EmperorQin Shi Huang gambling was prohibited ,while for example The GeneralHan Xin is seen as an inventor of football betting. Even though theHan continued to enact the anti-gambling laws in the beginning, nobles and commoners continued gambling. In this period the understanding of gambling also shifted from leisure to a way of becoming rich and during the rule of EmperorHan Wu punishments for gambling were abolished.[25]
Ze Hong argues that during the lateQing and earlyRepublic era there was still not a widespread understanding of the concept ofprobability among both gamblers and gambling houses. Among the games played he surveys areFan-Tan, White Pigeon Lottery and Flower Lottery. Instead of taking probability into account gamblers tried to identify patterns, adhered totaboos andinterpreted dreams, at the same time gambling houses acted similarly and tried to cheat or decorated their rooms in colors supposed to bring bad luck to the gamblers, instead of trusting their statistical advantages. Also critic of gambling only seldom talks about the unfair chances for gamblers, which in Hong's opinion would have been the case if they would have understood that the chances to win games could be computed.[26]
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