The Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau (DICJ) warned local gaming operators yesterday not to run online gambling and also not to place bets via telephone through local casinos.

The unusually strongly worded warning was issued, according to a DICJ statement, after a state media report about an online platform run by a local junket operator for gambling outside Macau.

While the DICJ statement did not name the operator, Reuters reported on Tuesday that according to a report earlier this week by the mainland-based Economic Information Daily, local junket operator Suncity “has raked in billions of [US] dollars in online gaming and proxy betting, causing great harm to [mainland] China social economic order.”

The highly-respected newspaper is affiliated to Xinhua, the central government’s main news agency. The newspaper’s masthead was written by Deng Xiaoping.

According to the report cited by Reuters, “Suncity enabled [mainland] Chinese players to bet through online casinos in the Philippines and Cambodia and utilised underground banks to move capital out of the [mainland].”

1 trillion yuan
The report by the world’s leading international newswire also said, quoting the Economic Information Daily that “the annual amount bet through online gambling on the mainland is more than 1 trillion yuan, equivalent to nearly twice the annual income of [mainland] China’s lottery
According to yesterday’s DICJ statement, the local government’s gaming inspectorate held separate meetings with senior representatives of Macau’s gaming concessionaires and sub-concessionaires as well as representatives of junket operator associations in order to warn them that they must supervise the junket operators working with them, namely concerning the need to obey all legal norms.

The statement quoted DICJ Director Paulo Martins Chan as underlining that any activity related to online gambling in Macau would violate the law. Chan reaffirmed that the Macau government does not allow any kind of online gambling or the placing of bets by telephone, as well as other related activities, through local casinos.

‘Rigorous supervision’
The inspectorate, according to the statement, warned Macau’s three gaming concessionaires and three sub-concessionaires to ensure the “rigorous” supervision of the junket operators officially working with them in order to prevent the “improper exploitation” of casinos in Macau for the promotion of online gambling and the placing of bets by telephone.

The statement urged all casino operators to inform the inspectorate of any suspected illegal online and phone gambling activities and also to remind their junket operators of their duty to strictly comply with all legal norms.

DICJ Director Paulo Martins Chan (second from right) meets with representatives of Macau’s three gaming concessionaires and three sub-concessionaires yesterday. Photo: GCS

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