Future Domestic Dispute: Chinese Competition to Macau?

Gambling in China is a big deal. Though the gambling industry is completely restricted to just one area, Macau, it still manages to top the scales as one of the world largest and most popular gambling destinations and rakes billions of dollars in per year. 

The reason behind Macau’s current wealth and popularity is interesting. The zone was the last European colony maintained in China by the Portuguese and was handed back over in 1999. It has enjoyed its status as a special administrative region since then. Due to this status, the region is subject to gambling laws that differ from general Chinese gambling law.  

Seeing the financial benefits of the region blossoming, the Chinese are quite satisfied with the region, comparable in fame and fortune to Las Vegas in the United States. Hainan, another special zone, a “special economic zone” more specifically, has considered going the way of Macau in order to reap the economic benefits. 

Murmurs and rumors of this potential move circumnavigated the world and sparked up a lot of interest. The rumored projects, however, will not be carried out. In a recent tourism based press conference, Tan Li, the vice governor of the region stated the following: “Hainan will not follow Macao's road in developing gambling tourism.” 

Due to this, the population of this large and powerful nation only has three options when it comes to gambling. They can participate in the lottery which is legal everywhere, they can travel to Macau, or they can play at online casinos in China. 

Internet gambling in China is fully legal as long as the sites that players visit are hosted elsewhere. At this point, the government isn’t distributing online gambling licenses to companies so players venture to foreign sites where it’s legal. Many of these sites cater to customers in both Chinese and English and some of them even accept Renminbi, the local currency.