Online Gambling in China Now a Target of Government Crackdown
China plans to crack down on the online gambling industry, including the banks and websites that support it, the Ministry of Public Security said in a statement posted on its website.
The statement clears says a campaign against the industry is in their plans.
From our correspondent in Hong Kong, I got this report:
The campaign will “concentrate on investigating major and important cases of online gambling, knock out domestic and foreign groups that organize online gambling, and severely punish the criminal elements”, the statement said.
The crackdown, to be conducted between February and August, was agreed to by eight government bodies including the Supreme Court, Propaganda bureau, the Central Bank and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
Gambling was banned in China right after Mao took over in 1949.
Oddly enough, China runs two lotteries.
Not that this has stopped underground and illegal sites run by nefarious syndicates.
The statement said it will severly punish those who run underground banks and third-party payment platforms that provide banking services needed for gambling.
As in pornography crackdowns, website operators will also be targeted.
The move is the latest in a series of curbs on the country’s relatively free-wheeling online world, one of the few arenas for people from across China to interact in large groups, share information and criticize the government.
China has banned Google’s Youtube since March 2009, when a Tibetan exile film documenting the injuries and death of a Tibetan protestor was published on the video sharing site.
The government began blocking Twitter, Flickr and Facebook last summer.
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Posted on February 10, 2010 by doclotto | Filed Under Culture, Gambling, Online
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New Casino Opens in Russia
Could Russia someday become the new hotbed of gambling?
Right now, it would appear not. In fact, recent Russian laws have impeded the building of gambling casinos in or near major cities.
They say it is a safety factor. Locating casinos in remote settings.
Well, I don’t know about that one.
Take Orakul Casino, which is about 60 miles from a small city called Rostov-on-Don, in southern Russia.
The casino just opened and according to published reports, about 500 people showed up. The casino lies in Above City, a gambling zone in that part of the country. The casino has 200 slot machines and 10 table games.
Despite the small turnout (who can get there at this time of year?), casino owners are adamant — they are convinced there is a market for gambling in Russia and in fact, they plan to start construction of a four-star hotel this summer.
“There’s a lot of gambling people here in the region,” Valery Saparin, marketing director for casino operator Royal Time, told Russian news agency TASS. “We hope that a lot of people will be drawn to us in the near future.”
In a brief opening ceremony, the official permission for activities to organise gambling games in the Azov City zone was presented to the Royal Time president Rashid Taimasov.
New Russian laws limit legalised gambling to Azov City, the Kaliningrad exclave on the Baltic Sea, the Altai region of Siberia and the Primorsky region of Russia’s Far East.
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Posted on February 1, 2010 by doclotto | Filed Under Culture, Gambling, News
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San Francisco Uprising: Native American Tribe Attempting to Obtain Land for Gaming
While cruising the net, I came across news of some interesting happenings in the San Francisco area.
With some editing, what follows is a release authored by Nelson Pinola, chairman of the Manchester-Point Arena Band of Pomo Indians. His release was first published in the San Francisco newspapers.
I find it very interesting. I hope you do too.
The Guidiville Band of Pomo Indians, a Mendocino County Pomo tribe, is attempting to obtain land in trust for gaming at Point Molate, Contra Costa County, in the heart of the urban San Francisco Bay Area.
While the tribe’s non-Indian developers clearly see dollar signs at Point Molate, that site is 120 miles away from the tribe’s ancestral homelands, their former rancheria, and their existing tribal trust lands in Mendocino County.
The Native American Pomo people know very well that Contra Costa County is not within our aboriginal territory. It has always been the home of Miwok, Ohlone and other native peoples, while the lands of our Pomo people have always been in the areas now called Sonoma, Mendocino, and Lake County.
The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act prohibits gaming on land taken into trust by the United States for a tribe after 1988 unless the tribe meets one of the exceptions to that rule, which has so far been rare.
In this case, the Tribe is trying to use the “restored-lands exception.”
Federal regulations say that in order for a tribe to qualify for that exception, it must have a “significant historical connection” to the land it wants as a casino site. Guidiville has no historical or cultural connection whatsoever to Point Molate, and it must not be allowed to proceed with its casino plans there.
Here’s what could happen if the proposed casino site is permitted.
If one tribe with no historical connection to its proposed casino site is permitted to use the restored-lands exception, others are sure to follow – to Sacramento, San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, San Diego and any other location that looks profitable.
That would be contrary to the law, the best interests of the great majority of gaming tribes whose casinos are on their rural reservations, and the essential basis of tribal sovereignty: connection to our ancestral homelands.
It would also violate the trust the voters of California when they amended the California Constitution to permit tribal casinos.
The Manchester-Point Arena Band of Pomo Indians opposes the Guidiville Point Molate project because granting this restored-lands exception would seriously undermine the sovereignty that all tribes have struggled to keep and to enhance.
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Posted on January 25, 2010 by doclotto | Filed Under Culture, Games, Legal, News
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Slots at Churchill Downs (?) and Other Venues in Kentucky? It Could Happen as Governor Steve Beshear Pitches Lawmakers
Here’s an ironic twist that I came across, while surfing the net recently.
Remember how Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear railed against the online gambling biz…saying it would corrupt minors? As if young kids would be playing poker online every day (instead of texting).
Right.
OK. Here is the twist.
Seems like Beshear wants to expand LEGALIZED gambling in his state.
He is lobbying legislators to pass laws that would allow racetracks in the bluegrass state to have slots.
Let me repeat this. It’s OK for adults to gamble…at his racetracks. But not online.
It’s all about money.
LOOK, I am all for freedom, online and in brick and mortar casinos.
I am all for slots.
But quit being a hypocrite, Governor.
This is all about money and generating revenue. Pure and simple.
Slots would bring in millions of dollars.
The revenue would also tremendously help an ailing horse racing industry. The racing industry in Kentucky is storied, but has come under some difficult economic times as the economy in the US has slipped.
The tracks have been pushing for new ways to help them stay financially viable.
So quit harping on online casinos, Mr. Beshear.
Last year,by the way, Beshear received national and international attention when he tried(unsuceesfully) to seize 141 online gambling domain names.
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Posted on January 21, 2010 by doclotto | Filed Under Gambling
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