Chinese Court Shows No Mercy For Online Gambling Perp
Online casino executives may be hoping that United States law enforcement officials are not observing Chinese practices too closely. While many in the online gambling industry, as well as the Internet community at large, have compared U.S. bans against Internet gaming as similar to Chinese policy, a verdict Wednesday left no doubt as to the position of the People's Republic.
Tam Chi-wai, a resident of Hong Kong, received a jail sentence of eight years and a $3,000,000 fine for operating an online gambling network. By Chinese law, it is illegal to establish a gambling party or gambling house.
Even though Asian tradition has extensive ties to gambling, the current Chinese government forbids it, and clearly does not wish to debate the question. Gambling at land casinos in Macau and at horse tracks in Hong Kong is permitted, but Internet gambling is banned, and controlled by China's army of online censors.
Still, Tam managed to operate his string of Internet casinos for almost eight years. Hundreds of bank accounts were set up to move funds to and from gambling patrons, and over five thousand users registered at one of the sites in its last year of existence, from 2006 to 2007.
Tam had been found guilty and sentenced in June by the People's Intermediate Court, but he appealed the sentence as overly harsh. The High People's Court agreed with the lower judges, as probably many members of the Bush Department of Justice would also.
