Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | October 2010 6 Cover Story C asino gambling is illegal within the borders of the People’s Republic of China. But the official definition of what constitutes commercial betting activity in other areas of Chinese life could best be described as a work in progress. Gambling-type behaviour occurs in so many activities and via so many media in China that were the authorities to turn more attention to policing it, they would probably not have time to do anything else. So if the Chinese government’s position is essentially one of containment of its citizens’ gambling impulses rather than blanket prohibition, how liberal could that containment policy be? Could the model be stretched to include a facility somewhere inside China that walks like a casino duck and quacks like a casino duck but in fact goes by another name? That pattern has already been seen in Vietnam, where some holiday facilities are given three-line titles that mention just about every leisure activity known to humanity except the ‘c’ word. The foreign media covering China certainly got excited about the possibility of casino-type activity in other parts of China aside fromMacau when, in January this year, details of a 10-year-plan for tourism development on the southern holiday island of Hainan were revealed. Gambling on China Macau isn’t the only game in town for passionate Chinese players Hainan—prettier with casinos?