I’ll see you and raise you - maybe not in China as Beijing blocks multiple mobile poker gambling apps

The closures come as the Chinese authorities strengthen oversight of online activity and content

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A real poker room in Macau. Photo: Handout

Published: 8:00am, 30 Oct 2018Updated: 3:59pm, 15 Nov 2018

Multiple Texas hold’em poker mobile gambling apps have been blocked in China as Beijing widens its crackdown on illicit online activities and clean-up of content it deems inappropriate.

Two of the biggest names affected are Poker King and Poker Tribe, which function as online gambling platforms, with total daily betting amounts reaching as much as 50 million yuan (US$7.2 million) at the former, according to a news report from state broadcaster CCTV.

Users of platforms such as Poker King have to charge their accounts with at least 1,000 yuan for gambling after registering as a new user, and provide their payment service or bank card. The platforms make money by charging a commission on winnings in customer accounts.

The closures come as the Chinese authorities strengthen oversight of online activity and content, including an order last week that Tencent Holdings remove pornographic materials from its dominant social media platform WeChat. The broad campaign to clean up “inappropriate” online content – including time restrictions and controls over how much minors spend on online games – has forced some of the country’s hottest tech start-ups to shut down seemingly harmless services, such as joke and comics apps.

In early July, Chinese police smashed a gambling ring that punted on virtual red packets on WeChat. And in the past year and a half, Shenzhen authorities have arrested 71 people for gambling activities on Tencent’s WeChat and QQ platforms, with the largest sum involving around 60 million yuan. In the second quarter of this year, WeChat closed more than 8,000 gambling-related groups on the platform, according to data released by Tencent’s security centre.