China Stomps Gambling and Pornography
The Chinese government has a plan to stop rampant gambling in the country. Branded a "paramount evil" by the Communist party that took control of the country in 1949, gambling has been illegal in China for several decades. Stopping gambling became a high priority last month when it was discovered that a senior government official had lost over $300,000 in public funds during at least 15 trips to a casino in North Korea. News reports indicate that a large sum of money, roughly $70 billion in both public and private funds, is spent in overseas casinos. The government is trying to prevent such money from leaving the country by attempting to block the channels through which many Chinese citizens go abroad for gambling. Online gambling and illegal lotteries will also be a primary target, and the country's minister of public security stated that the campaign would shut down offices and Web sites set up by foreign companies.
The Internet Society of China (ISC) in late December revealed statistics on the success of a nationwide crackdown on pornography announced in July. Since the launch of the ISC Web site in June, the agency had received 95,000 reports of pornographic and other illegal Web sites and was able to close 1,278 illegal sites and an additional 114 sites that promoted gambling, superstition and subversive ideas. The Ministry of Public Security, which awards some informers for help in identifying illegal sites, has used the information obtained since June to launch 254 criminal cases and capture 445 suspects.
At the end of November, the Chinese government produced a report on a public policy plan announced in March that sought to reduce violence, sex and subversive content in video games and Web sites. By November the plan had resulted in the closing of 1,600 Internet cafes and fines of over $12 million for cafe owners. The government's attitude is well explained by a Culture Ministry spokesperson, who stated, "Pornography, gambling, violence and similar problems have adversely affected the healthy development of the Internet in China."
Spamming In The USA
Judge Alvin Hellerstein of Manhattan Federal Court in December refused to accept a guilty plea from Jason Smathers, the former America Online software engineer who allegedly stole 92 million e-mail addresses and sold them to spammers. Smathers, who had already worked out a plea deal with prosecutors, is being charged with violating the U.S. CAN-SPAM Act, but Judge Hellerstein said he's not certain that Smathers actually deceived anyone, which is a requirement of the law. Prosecutors have now been asked to file a brief explaining for why Smathers is being charged under the Act and how his conduct was deceptive. The next hearing is scheduled for Jan. 28.
The Federal Trade Commission announced Tuesday that it has charged five individuals and six companies--Global Net Solutions of Las Vegas, Wedlake of Latvia, Global Net Ventures of London, Southlake Group of Las Vegas, Open Space Enterprises of Las Vegas and Reflected Networks of Las Vegas and Chicago--with violating "virtually every portion of the CAN-SPAM Act. The FTC is holding the defendants responsible for recruiting affiliate marketers to promote their adult Web sites by sending hundreds of thousands of unlabeled or deceptively labeled spam messages.
The United States' five Federal Communications commissioners voted unanimously in December to support a proposal to eliminate a ban on using mobile phones while flying in airplanes. High-speed Internet access would also be permitted in flight, and the FCC plans to auction off the airwave rights to companies that want to offer wireless Internet access on commercial aircrafts.
Bypassing Saudi Censors
According to Saudi Arabia's Internet Services Unit in King Abdul City for Science and Technology (KACST), 7 percent of the kingdom's 2 million Internet users attempt to access officially blocked pages that promote pornography, drugs, gambling, violence and other content banned by Islam. Of that 7 percent, 92 percent try to access pornographic sites. Some people are finding other ways to access the Internet, however, and thereby bypass KACST censors. The most common method is to use an illegal satellite dish to access the Web.
The Foggy Fate of Britain's Gambling Bill
The future of the U.K. Gambling Bill seems uncertain as almost every day brings a fresh round of complaints from angered citizens, politicians, health experts and casino operators. In December, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) announced yet another cap on casino expansion plans, resulting in combined market value loss of around £300 million for casino operators. Shadow culture secretary John Whittingdale said of the recent changes, "This is another extraordinary development in what has been the most bizarre saga of the bill's consideration. The minister has announced major changes to the bill--changes that alter completely the whole thrust of the bill. He has done so when we had just finished considering clause 310 of a bill that consists of only 337 clauses." Whittingdale is not the only government official to criticize the bill; many are stating publicly that they would not mind if the bill was delayed or allowed to slip into the next Parliamentary session. The bulk of the criticism is directed toward the treatment of land-based casinos and arcades. I-gaming has received very little attention.
In November, the DCMS published the National Lottery Bill, which aims to improve how lottery funds are distributed to good causes as well as streamline administrative processes to save an estimated £6 million to £12 million per year. One of the bill's primary goals is to make the lottery more responsive to public priorities. To that end, the bill will merge three entities--the New Opportunities Fund, the Community Fund and the Millennium Commission--into a single distributor called the Big Lottery Fund. Also included in the bill are measures that would allow lottery distributors to receive and consider public consultation before deciding where to allocate lottery money. Months earlier, DCMS Secretary Tessa Jowell was seriously considering breaking the National Lottery license into three parts to cover different lottery products, but the DCMS finally settled on plans that would keep all products licensed under a single operator. An important change in the licensing structure, however, aims to improve the process by which operators compete for the license. If for some reason the competition is deemed to be unsuccessful, then a fallback approach permits the National Lottery Commission to break the license into two or three pieces to cover different lottery products.
Tighter Licensing Restrictions in the Czech Republic
The Finance Ministry of the Czech Republic, where close to 90 companies are licensed to operate lotteries and games, has drafted proposals that would considerably tighten licensing conditions for operators. Entrepreneurs who run casinos would have to submit updated copies for the criminal records every year, and new license applicants would have to prove that they pay taxes and owe no debts to the state as well as prove where they obtained the money they are investing into the venture. The law will not come into effect this year.
Prohibition and Legalization Movements in Thailand
Yannaphol Yangyuen, a senior police officer with Thailand's Office of Technology and Information Technology, stated in November that Thai authorities had blocked access to 10 foreign online gambling Web sites with cooperation from the country's 18 Internet service providers. He conceded, however, that savvy Internet users would be able to circumvent the block.
Meanwhile, the National Economic and Social Development Board has proposed legalizing gambling and prostitution by 2007. The board's goal is to bring the illegal businesses into the country's mainstream economic system. As far as gambling is concerned, the board has advised holding a public meeting to gauge citizens' reactions to establishing legal gambling places. Estimates place the amount of profits from underground gambling between 134 billion and 277 billion baht (between US$3.5 billion and $7.1 billion), which is between 7.8 percent and 10 percent of the country's gross domestic product.