Beijing urges citizens in Singapore to avoid gambling

The Chinese embassy in Singapore has urged Chinese citizens in the city-state to stay away from gambling, reiterating that cross-border gambling violates Chinese laws – a reminder that will most likely not be applied to Macau.

In a statement yesterday, the embassy “solemnly reminded” the majority of Chinese citizens in Singapore to enhance their legal awareness and stay away from all forms of gambling.

China has been intensifying its crack down on cross-border, off-shore and online gambling, sending similar warnings to several countries as it tries to curb these illegal activities and warnings to citizens abroad.

Macau SAR is the only place in China where gambling is allowed.

In a notice to the country, which is home to two casinos, one operated by Las Vegas Sands and the other Genting Singapore, the embassy reminded that when caught, embassies and consulates may not be able to provide consular protection for violations.

“Even if overseas casinos are legally opened, cross-border gambling by Chinese citizens is suspected of violating the laws of our country,” the embassy said.

“Cross-border gambling may also bring risks such as fraud, money laundering, kidnapping, detention, trafficking and smuggling,” the Chinese embassy in Singapore added.

The Chinese government, the embassy reiterated, has always opposed any form of gambling and opposes Chinese citizens leaving the country to engage in the gambling industry.

Meanwhile, gaming industry expert and analyst Ben Lee believed that, while gambling for the mainlanders no matter where has always been deemed illegal, it does present “an interesting dilemma for the mainland authorities as to how they will apply that ruling.”

“There’s very little doubt that they will most likely not apply that law to Macau as the outcome would be nothing short of a disaster for the SAR,” said Lee, managing partner of IGamiX Management & Consulting.

Three years ago, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism Department of China stated it had established a ‘blacklist’ of overseas gambling tourism destinations (excluding Macau), listing some cities that have opened casinos to attract Chinese tourists and disrupt the business order of China’s tourism market. 

After a year, Beijing extended its travel blacklist of overseas gambling jurisdictions, which seeks to prevent Chinese nationals from traveling to casino destinations, which are alleged to be “endangering the personal and property safety of Chinese citizens.” 

To the Times, Lee remarked, “It sits with our view that travelers flagged for gambling overseas are still unable to travel freely up until now and it either presages the gates being opened for more people to travel again or the crackdown continuing.”

The Chinese embassies in South Korea and Sri Lanka also issued similar warnings recently.

While the blacklisted destinations have not been made public the Philippines, Myanmar, Malaysia and Vietnam are all hotspots for Chinese gamblers, which have also become home to casinos and online gambling operations aimed at Chinese nationals.

Just last month, law enforcement agencies in China and the Philippines cooperated to repatriate more than 40 Chinese nationals engaged in offshore gambling, according to a statement from the Chinese embassy in the Philippines.

The Chinese embassy in Singapore said the Ministry of Public Security of China opened a reporting platform for combating cross-border and online gambling, where Chinese citizens can pass on clues and suspected activity.

Legal and gaming expert Jorge Costa Oliveira from JCO Consultancy Ltd told the Times that such reminders “don’t seem to apply to Macau.”

The gaming consultant noted that the criminal prosecution in Wenzhou (China) of former junket mogul Alvin Chau for overseas (Philippines) operations seems to have already “assumed this kind of interpretation of Chinese law.”

The Suncity case has comprehensively verified the specific harmful behaviors of the cross-border gambling criminal group such as organization and agency, gambling fund settlement, online gambling, asset management, technology and vehicle services.

Quoted by CCTV news, officials of the Intermediate People’s Court of Wenzhou believed that all these activities have been suppressed throughout the entire chain, which has a landmark significance for China’s lawful crackdown on cross-
border gambling crimes.