New Chinese Online Gambling Laws Come into Effect - 08-04-10

August 4 - The Chinese government made news yet again this week after new laws relating to online gambling went into effect.

Last month, the government created the law that were scheduled to kick in on August 1st.

The laws refer to Chinese residents' access to the internet, focusing mainly on their playing at online casinos and online poker rooms.

The government created the law to protect minors, wording the law that "online games targeting minors must be free of content that can lead to the imitation of behaviour that violates social morals of the law."

Analysts of the new legislation point out that the wording is vague and ill-defined, to say the least, such as no definition of the terms "social morals".

Internet companies are told in the law that it is their responsibility to limit the hours that minors are allowed to play games at their sites to "prevent addiction".

In this case too, the law does not specify how many hours exactly, leaving it up to the companies to define - and hoping that they get it right!

The new law calls for all players who take up gambling online to register under their real names, provide their real age and provide proof of both.

It remains to be seen whether the new laws will have any impact on the 420 million Chinese who have access to the internet.

Analysts believe that the Chinese online gambling market is worth around $800 million a year, and it may be that laws such as the latest imposed on the government may not dent this number in the least.

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