China’s war on ‘cross-border’ gambling claimed a lot of scalps in 2020, although a new report claims 11m Chinese citizens still gamble online on any given day. 

On Tuesday, China’s Ministry of Public Security issued a statement on its anti-gambling activity in 2020, which saw the Ministry resolve more than 3,500 cross-border (land-based and online) gambling cases and arrest some 7,500 suspects. The Ministry also claimed to have ‘destroyed’ 2,260 gambling platforms, 890 technical support hubs, 1,160 marketing affiliates and 1,960 illegal payment platforms and ‘underground’ banks. 

Of the arrested individuals, over 600 Chinese nationals were detained overseas, thanks to increased cooperation between the Ministry and its counterparts in the Philippines, Malaysia, Myanmar, Vietnam and other Asia-Pacific countries. 

The Ministry also hailed its ‘blacklist’ of countries that lure mainland residents abroad to gamble, while still refusing to identify the countries that have been labeled with this scarlet letter. The Ministry warned mainland residents to “consciously resist” traveling abroad to gamble or to participate in illegal online gambling from the mainland.