China’s online gamblers are facing fresh challenges as the country adds more digital bricks to its ‘great firewall.’

In January, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information announced a new crackdown on “disordered” internet activity in a bid to make it even more difficult for China’s netizens to access content the government views unkindly (including internationally licensed online gambling sites).

The crackdown, which included restrictions on the use of unauthorized virtual private networks (VPN), appears to be ramping up. Late last month, popular VPN service provider Green abruptly informed its customers that it would “cease our service on July 1st, 2017” after having “received notice from the higher authorities.” Meanwhile, a host of other VPN providers’ apps have been slowly vanishing from Android and iOS stores.

On Monday, Bloomberg reported that all Chinese state-run telecom carriers have been ordered to block VPN services by February 1, 2018. That timeline is slightly ahead of the 14-month implementation the government envisioned when it first announced its crackdown.