Myanmar Warlord Cracks Chinese Online Casino Market

2006 September 01, Jonny Vincent

The Chinese online casino market is widely viewed as an untapped market with huge potential for the online gaming industry.

However, until recently, the Chinese online casino market has been largely impenetrable due to state-enforced restrictions on the ability of online casinos to offer their services to Chinese casino players.

The Asia Times Online reported this week that a plucky Myanmar (formerly Burma) warlord named Lin Mingxian is thumbing his nose at the Chinese authorities in this regard. Mingxian has setup his facilities in a mini-Vegas town called Mong La in Special Region 4. Mong La used to be a popular destination for Chinese gamblers during the 1990s, but the Chinese government sent a small number of troops to the region to enforce the travel bans and ensure the town's casino operators discontinued their trade. The Chinese government have even threatened to cut off the town's power supply.

But Lin Mingxian commands a small army of militia (estimated to be almost 3000-strong) and is aggressively expanding his enterprise into online gaming. In April, Mingxian (also known as Sai Leun) presided over the opening of no less than seven new "live-over-the-Internet" gambling facilities, specifically designed for and targeted at Chinese online gamblers. The report states that another 14 gambling venues are being built about 10 miles south of Mong La.

The Asia Times Online reporter investigated the casinos, and found a brand new land-based casino completely surrounded by tropical forest. Inside the building, leather chairs surround baccarat tables, with cameras suspended above the tables, allowing Chinese gamblers located around mainland China to play their hands. From Shanghai or Beijing, gamblers can watch the tables via a live video feed over the Internet and place bets through agents on location at the jungle casinos.

Lin Mingxian was a former Communist Party of Burma army commander is not the sort of man to take a power cut threat lying down. He ordered the construction of a power plant nearby which is now operational and independently capable of supplying up to 30,000 kilowatts of power.

Lin Mingxian is incredibly popular in the region due to his policy of tax exemption for all the town's residents. He has instructed the residents of the town that, as long as they supply him with new recruits for his army, they will never need to pay tax.

Will the Chinese government take Mingxian's operation lying down? Only time will tell. Until they make a move, Chinese gamblers will be able to enjoy baccarat games at their leisure from the comfort of their homes, thanks to Mingxian's jungle casinos.

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