The People’s Bank of China will take further measures to stamp out illegal gambling going on in the mainland, thanks to a new state-backed cryptocurrency. The DCEP system will also allow the country to target terrorist funding, tax evasion, and other cybercrimes.

China Close to Cracking Down on Gambling

The People’s Bank of China has announced that it is close to introducing the first national cryptocurrency known as the Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP).

The major objective of the new blockchain-powered currency would be to clamp down on illegal online gambling, among addressing money laundering practices, and other financial crimes, news outlets reported.

There has been little exact information about the cryptocurrency, but experts believe the currency would allow the government to track suspicious payments, locate funds allocated to terrorist groups, identify tax evasion, and specifically address online gambling – both within the borders of the country and abroad.

Controllable Anonymity

People’s Bank of China Digital Currency Research Institute Head Mu Changchun has said that the cryptocurrency will allow users to benefit from ‘controllable anonymity.’

He further acknowledges the desire of users to benefit from the inherent anonymity of cryptocurrencies, and noted that this would be the case up to a point so that potential fraud and other electronic criminal activities can be investigated, Mu said:

We know the demand from the general public is to keep anonymity by using paper money and coins … we will give those people who demand it anonymity in their transactions.

China has been meticulously dealing with cryptocurrencies, and specifically those used to gamble with, including Bitcoin and TRON. Estimated 12.7% of all criminal activities online involved gambling in 2019 so far.

Gambling Off Limits in China

China has maintained a firm gung-ho opposition against online gambling, with the obvious exception being Macau, the territory which opened for business in the 1990s to harbour one of the largest gaming hubs in Asia and the world.

Meanwhile, all gambling websites in the mainland are blocked by the so-called ‘Great Firewall’ designed to suspend access to unauthorized websites, gambling venues included.

While authorities are solely focused on stamping out gambling and target individuals who run illicit operations in the mainland, the government’s ‘social score’ system may soon be used to apply penalties to people who have been found to participate as users.

The social score system may seem like the stuff of Orwellian dystopias, but it’s not restrictive as it sounds – and moderation in gambling appetites may be a good thing.

In 2018, the Chinese cyber police managed to clamp down on a $1.5 billion cryptocurrency scheme that has been accepting bets on the World Cup.

Blockdraw CEO Darin Oliver has been among the few upbeat figures to predict a huge boom in interest insofar cryptocurrency gambling n China is concerned.

Despite recent events, Oliver feels that the flexibility of blockchain allows it to evolve while staying under the radar for Chinese authorities. Some crypto casinos have pulled out of the country to respect the wishes of local authorities, but others have kept accounts active ‘to respect regional users.’