Gaming regulator asks search engines to block illegal websites

DICJ director Paulo Martins Chan

In 2019, the Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) reached out to several major mainland search engine operators to block illegal gambling links, according to the DICJ’s reply to lawmaker Lam Lon Wai’s interpellation.
As of the end of 2017, the Judiciary Police (PJ) had requested that the relevant governments block a total of 636 illegal gambling websites. Four hundred and fifty of these were successfully blocked.
According to the reply written by DICJ director Paulo Martins Chan, the majority of these domains are based in mainland China.
This year, most illegal gambling websites were created to target mainland residents. In light of this situation, the DICJ proactively approached “many major mainland” search engine operators, asking them to not only block the links, but also block all kinds of promotional information concerning illegal gambling. The DICJ’s requests were agreed to by “most” of the search engine operators.
Since the middle of 2015, the DICJ has received an “abundant” number of reports about illegal gambling websites and apps which had labeled themselves as being from “Macau,” “the DICJ,” and “all gaming concession companies.”
These websites and apps were established and were being operated from outside of Macau, making it difficult for the Macau gaming regulator to handle the situation.
Previously, the bureau had contacted web hosts in mainland China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, and the United States, among other countries, as well as internet monitoring departments in Macau, Hong Kong and mainland China.
The bureau also contacted two major mobile application platforms, asking them to take down the illegal operations, which was then done accordingly.
Citing the Office for Secretary for Security, Chan said that all illegal gambling websites spotted in Macau are either registered or hosted outside of Macau.
Previously, PJ Director Sit Chong Meng explained that these illegal websites were not running any kind of gambling services; they were mostly sites used for fraud purposes. The police authority had already reported cases where victims claimed to have lost money to gambling website scams. JZ