What’s It like Gambling Online in China?

Most countries don’t have a big problem with their citizens gambling online. Even nations that have tougher laws on internet gambling, such as the United States, don’t often take legal action on the matter.

China, on the other hand, does care deeply about what their residents do online—whether it’s gambling or just general browsing. In fact, they use the Great Firewall of China to prevent citizens from accessing non-government approved websites.

Regardless of if you’re visiting or living in this country, you can’t just hop on Google and find what you’re looking for. You instead must use specific Chinese apps and websites.

Not surprisingly, your freedoms are limited when it comes to gambling online in China. I’ll discuss more on China’s internet gambling laws along with if it’s still possible to play at online casinos, poker sites, and sportsbooks here.

Online Gambling Is Illegal in China

The Red Dragon features harsh anti-gambling laws. China doesn’t allow land-based casinos, poker rooms, bingo halls, or sportsbooks on the mainland.

They also ban most instances of online gambling. The only government approved forms of gambling with this country include the following:

• National lotteries
• National sports betting lotteries
• Land-based casinos in Macau (special administrative region)
• Land-based casinos in Hong Kong (special administrative region)

Macau is definitely the crown jewel of the limited Chinese gambling industry. Featuring over 30 casinos, it draws more gaming revenue than any casino destination in the world.

Of course, not everybody has the travel money nor vacation time to skip off to Macau whenever they please. After all, this special Chinese jurisdiction is located on the country’s southeast coast.

No regulated form of online gambling has been able to penetrate the nation’s market. Tencent Holdings, China’s biggest tech company, once ran a popular Texas hold’em app. However, the Chinese government forced them to cease offering the app in 2018.

As a result, Chinese citizens and visitors have no true legal route towards online gambling. They must use other means to play at internet poker rooms, casinos, and bingo rooms (covered later).

What Are the Penalties for Illegal Gambling?

You can see that China is one of the toughest countries when it comes to gambling of any type. However, their laws are mainly aimed at illegal operators and professional gamblers.

According to Article 303 of the revised Criminal Law of the People’s Republic of China, anybody who “runs a gambling house or makes gambling his profession shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, criminal detention or public surveillance and shall also be fined.”

Additionally, serious violators of Article 303 can be imprisoned for between three and 10 years. A land-based or online gambling kingpin might fall under this definition.

The law targets two main groups of people:

• Illegal gambling operators
• Professional gamblers

By definition of Chinese law, recreational players shouldn’t be targets. However, China has ignored their own laws in this regard by arresting casual gamblers in the past.

Fortunately, every recreational bettor so far has been spared jail time. But they have had to pay fines, which can be heavy in some cases.

As stated by Article 303, the harshest penalty can land any gambling figure in jail for a decade. But casual gamblers have only received fines so far.

Chinese Citizens Still Gamble Online

China definitely doesn’t make it easy to place online bets. However, they haven’t completely stamped out the market.

In fact, Chinese citizens and visitors actually enjoy a fair amount of options at their disposal. Some operators are completely comfortable in floating the country’s anti-gambling laws.

Realtime Gaming (RTG) and Bodog are two of the most popular providers in this market. They supply online casino games, poker, and/or sports betting to many people in China.

Established in 1998, RTG is one of the most experienced online gaming providers in gaming. They offer both games and turnkey solutions to perspective casino operators.

The turnkey solution alludes to how operators can use our RTG’s banking, customer support, games, and marketing strategies. Meanwhile, Realtime Gaming takes a hands-off approach to casino customers—even concerning which markets they operate in.

Online casinos can use the latter to their advantage by serving China and other countries/regions where internet gambling may be illegal or a grey area (e.g. US).

Bodog is no stranger to serving questionable markets either. Launched in 1994, Bodog quickly became controversial for serving Americans.

This brand has since left the US, at least in theory (see Bovada), but they’re still very active. Like RTG, they also offer a turnkey solution to operators that want to operate in any market around the globe.

Bodog and RTG are just two of the most prominent developers that supply games to the Chinese market. There are other game providers operating out of the Philippines and elsewhere that are also willing to brave China.

Some Gamblers Use a VPN

Most Chinese residents don’t need to worry about getting caught when they’re illegally gambling online. However, they still take considerable risk when doing so.

That said, some players use a virtual private network (VPN) to cover their tracks. A VPN allows users to access a remote server that’s located in a different city or even country.

Here’s an example on how these services work:

• A gambler in China wants to access UK online casinos.
• However, the UK market bans other countries from using their gaming sites.
• The player still wants to enjoy these casinos due to the large jackpots and lucrative bonuses.
• They pay $8 (56 yuan) per month to use a VPN.
• The gambler chooses London as the remote server.
• UK online casinos, which are programmed to detect users’ IP addresses, now think that the player is located in London.

The fact that the gambler is using a VPN doesn’t make their gambling activities legal under Chinese law. However, they stand less chance of being caught and can access a larger variety of gaming sites—even those in strict regulated markets like the UK.

Of course, users get what they pay for regarding a VPN. Some of the cheaper services are less likely to protect customers’ details when pressed by the law. That said, some Chinese gamblers are willing to pay a little more for extra protection.

Will Chinese Citizens Always Get Away with Internet Gambling?

If they’re willing to take the risk, Chinese players have many options and means to gamble online. Furthermore, they don’t stand a very high chance of being caught.

But the Chinese government has been working on a way to better track their citizens’ internet habits. It has specifically been exploring a national cryptocurrency that would be tracked via blockchain.

The Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP) is China’s proposed future national cryptocurrency. Essentially a digital yuan, it could replace RMB if everything goes according to plan.

Blockchain — the backbone of Bitcoin — serves as a digital ledger for cryptocurrencies. It would allow China to virtually track all financial transactions made with DCEP and exercise greater control.

In theory, DCEP gives the government even greater control over its citizens. Chinese law enforcement would have a much easier time rooting out online gamblers and other alleged perpetrators.

Of course, many Chinese internet bettors don’t deposit with bank transfers, credit cards, and other easily traceable instruments. Instead, they use Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to fund their accounts and withdraw money.

Bitcoin doesn’t escape the government’s grasp entirely. However, it’s much more difficult to track than the yuan and traditional payment methods.

The DCEP could no doubt make it very difficult to gamble online in China. But other cryptocurrencies could still leave an opening for doing so.

Conclusion

Gambling online in China isn’t easy. The national government uses an all-encompassing firewall and harsh laws/penalties to keep people from placing internet bets.

However, they’ve been unable to completely prevent Chinese gamblers from playing at online casinos, poker rooms, and sportsbooks. Many citizens are still finding ways to make online wagers. Meanwhile, certain providers are supplying games and betting to China.

Whether this situation remains the status quo is unclear. The government has proposed a digital coin, DCEP, that’ll give the state better surveillance of transactions.

For the time being, though, citizens can still place online bets in China. Recreational gamblers who’ve been caught only face fines too.