China’s latest anti-gambling crackdown, a war-scale operation?
China has widened its crackdown on illegal gambling, signalling an unprecedented regional push targeting online platforms, cross-border syndicates, and financial networks that have long operated beyond Beijing’s direct reach. While gambling and iGaming have been banned on the Chinese mainland for decades, forming one of Asia’s strictest regulatory frameworks, Chinese officials say evolving online models and transnational crime groups have forced a recalibration of enforcement tactics.
Yet the landscape remains contradictory within China’s own jurisdiction. Macau, the only place in the country where casino gambling is legal, continues to operate one of the world’s most successful gaming markets. In 2024, the region generated MOP 226.8 billion (€24.5 billion). Hong Kong, meanwhile, is home to several casino-linked conglomerates operating globally, despite its own tightly controlled gambling laws.
Extraditions and high-profile crackdowns
Despite this, recent weeks have seen Beijing taking major moves against online gaming. A succession of major enforcement actions has marked its renewed focus. Among the most prominent is the extradition of She Zhijiang, a Chinese-Cambodian businessman accused of running more than 200 online gambling platforms and an alleged large-scale scam operation targeting mainland users. After more than two years of legal delays, Zhijiang was returned from Thailand to China in November 2025, with prosecutors describing his network as a national security threat that siphoned billions of yuan offshore.
Not just this, China has also handed severe punishments, even death penalties, for several big businessmen operating in the conflict-affected regions of Myanmar. In one of the most consequential rulings to date, 11 members of the influential Ming family, a group previously operating powerful gambling, scam, and trafficking networks in Myanmar’s Kokang region, were handed death sentences for crimes linked to a multi-billion-dollar criminal empire. Five others received suspended death sentences, and a further 12 were jailed for terms ranging from five to 24 years.
In January 2024, Chinese authorities successfully extradited Bai Suocheng, a warlord from Kokang who has long been accused of operating telecom fraud hubs and illegal casinos near the Chinese border. State media referred to the sentencing of the Ming family and Bai’s extradition as significant milestones in Beijing’s ongoing efforts to dismantle entrenched criminal networks that combine gambling with fraud, trafficking, and illicit finance. Recently, Bai has also been sentenced to death.
China’s Supreme People’s Court says that such ‘ringleaders’ of cross-border gambling operations, especially those responsible for severe economic losses or violence, will face the harshest penalties, including capital punishment. Officials suggest the severity is intended to deter the rapid growth of criminal ecosystems that have expanded across Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, and the Philippines.
Diplomatic pressure on neighbours
China has simultaneously intensified diplomatic engagement with neighbouring countries, seeking greater cooperation in tracking, arresting, and extraditing suspects linked to illegal gambling networks.
For instance, in a meeting with Thai president Anutin Charnvirakul, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for deeper coordination on telecom fraud, money laundering, and illegal gambling during recent high-level talks in Bangkok. As a result, Thai authorities, facing domestic pressure to confront criminal hubs along the Myanmar border, publicly backed increased intelligence sharing and joint operations with Beijing.
Myanmar also remains central to China’s strategy, particularly the semi-autonomous regions of Kokang and Myawaddy, areas long associated with online scam compounds, cyber-fraud centres, and illegal casinos. Chinese security officials say several arrests and sentencing efforts over the past year were supported through trilateral channels involving China, Thailand, and Myanmar.
These initiatives fall under Beijing’s broader Global Security Initiative, which aims to build international frameworks to respond to cyber-enabled criminal activity. Chinese officials argue that while gambling syndicates may appear financially motivated, they often operate as transnational crime structures that require coordinated cross-border enforcement.
Beijing takes a harder line
Industry trends point to several factors driving China’s increasingly aggressive stance. The primary reason is the growing demand from Chinese consumers. Additionally, economic and financial risks play a major role. Authorities have consistently warned that overseas gambling results in substantial capital outflows, which can worsen financial instability within the country.
Many gambling networks rely on underground banking systems to move money across borders. These unregulated channels obscure financial flows, weaken oversight, and increase broader systemic risk.
Court documents and public briefings also show how gambling syndicates often operate alongside telecom fraud, kidnapping, extortion, money laundering, forced labour, and human trafficking. Chinese legal scholars describe these networks as “black-grey industry chains”, meaning they operate under business fronts that obscure criminal activity. This blend of legality and illegality, authorities argue, makes such groups significantly harder to dismantle.
The scale of the problem
As a result, China’s Ministry of Public Security reported shutting down thousands of illegal gambling platforms and underground financial channels annually. In 2024 alone, authorities handled tens of thousands of cases linked to overseas gambling and telecom fraud. Many of these operations were based in Southeast Asia, where political instability and lightly regulated zones have provided fertile ground for cyber-fraud centres.
Officials say illegal gambling fuels debt traps, violent crime, and trafficking, while fostering a ‘get-rich-quick mentality’ that undermines social values. State media also warns that Chinese nationals operating large-scale fraud operations abroad harm the country’s international image and diplomatic relations.
Together, these economic, social, and geopolitical concerns have shaped Beijing’s latest crackdown, signalling a shift from domestic enforcement to a broad, international security effort. While China claims progress, with major arrests and high-profile extraditions, analysts say criminal groups have already started to shift operations deeper into unregulated border territories. For Beijing, the fight is likely to continue for years. The campaign, officials insist, is no longer just about gambling, but about dismantling the global criminal ecosystems built around it.
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