China's Gambling Crackdown: 80,000 Arrests and Counting

Chinese authorities have made over 80,000 arrests in a crackdown on cross-border gambling. Over 2,200 illegal online gambling platforms were shut down in the latest crackdown. The arrests and closures were the result of 17,000 separate cases investigated by China’s Ministry of Public Security.

An estimated $150 billion of gambling-related money left the country by various means in the first three-quarters of 2020 alone. A blacklist system was launched in 2020 that made visiting certain countries for gambling purposes illegal. The Ministry of Public Security claims their concerted efforts have proved fruitful in “wiping out the gambling recruitment and attraction networks, money laundering and other illegal monetary channels of many large, overseas gambling groups in China.”

Suncity Group CEO, Alvin Chau, was arrested late last year. Alvin Chau was described by police as the “mastermind” behind an illegal gambling syndicate which used junket operations in Macau to set up an overseas betting platform targeting mainlanders. The Chinese authorities have described Chau's operation as a “crime syndicate” with a reported 199 shareholder-level agents, more than 12,000 gambling agents, and over 80,000 punter members.