UN Flags China as Main Target of Illegal Gambling Networks
China remains the main target of illegal gambling networks operating across Southeast Asia, according to a new United Nations report. The organisation says China, together with Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan, accounts for about half of global illegal gambling turnover, which it places at between $340 billion and $1.7 trillion.
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Demand Pushed Offshore
The report says mainland China’s strict prohibition on gambling has not reduced demand. Instead, it says that demand has been displaced abroad and online, with Chinese nationals forming the primary consumer base for criminal networks.
The UN describes the region’s online gambling sector as a multi-billion-dollar network that creates a major financial crime challenge for lawmakers. It says operators use tactics such as domain cycling and mule accounts to avoid detection and blocking efforts.
According to the report, multinational networks are often licensed in places such as the Isle of Man and Curaçao, hosted on servers in Eastern Europe, and run by staff in Southeast Asia. The UN also points to cryptocurrency as a major shift in the market, saying it has fundamentally transformed the financial architecture of illegal online gambling.
The report says Chinese-language money laundering networks now dominate that infrastructure, having processed an estimated $16.1 billion in illegal crypto funds in the last year.
Crime Networks Expand
The UN says online gambling prohibition across Southeast Asia, combined with weak enforcement, has accelerated the sector’s links to transnational crime groups. It says illegal online gambling has converged with online fraud and people trafficking, serving both as a revenue source and a way to launder funds.
The report says the Philippines’ decision to ban offshore gaming operators, known as POGOs, did not eliminate the operators. Instead, it displaced them into other markets such as Cambodia, Myanmar, and Indonesia.
The report adds that illegal online gambling did not emerge as a separate criminal sector. Rather, it developed as an extension of pre-existing criminal portfolios. As enforcement tightened on offshore gambling infrastructure, the same groups added cyber-enabled fraud platforms into existing gambling structures, repurposing casino hotels, compounds, and related financial networks.
The UN says these locations have become hubs for a booming illicit economy, with a single site often housing multiple tenants engaged in online gambling, cyber-enabled fraud, trafficking in persons, and money laundering at the same time.
Social Media Drives Youth Exposure
The report also says mobile phone adoption and social media have changed the way illegal gambling is marketed across the region. Operators are using social media influencers as a main way to reach younger players.
The UN describes young people’s exposure to illegal online gambling through social media as a public health crisis that policymakers are not able to address effectively. It also points to a lawsuit filed last month by Thailand’s Consumers Council against Meta, which accused the company of allowing scam advertisements and online fraud to spread unchecked.
The council said Facebook continues to carry large numbers of scam adverts, including gambling adverts, and that its algorithm helps scammers target specific groups, causing major financial losses.
The UN says illegal gambling operators in South-East Asia have systematically weaponised digital marketing infrastructure to reach youth demographics. It says they use social media platforms, influencer networks, mobile access, and gamified interfaces to lower participation thresholds and normalise offshore gambling in places where it remains prohibited.
The report also says the recruitment of influencers, particularly young women with large followings, has become a core strategy for normalising gambling participation among youth audiences.
Regional Response Needed
The UN is urging lawmakers in the region to build coordinated regulatory frameworks, warning that working in isolation simply pushes criminal activity elsewhere while leaving poor oversight and corruption risks in place. The report says the gambling-fraud-trafficking nexus is not only a financial crime challenge but also a regional security concern.
It concludes that the same criminal principals, facilities, and financial networks supporting gambling operations also sustain the coercive infrastructure holding tens of thousands of trafficked people. Enforcement strategies that treat gambling operators, scam compound operators, and trafficking networks as separate problems, the report says, will continue to fall short of the integrated threat they face.
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Source: iGaming Expert
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