As the maligned internet gambling industry continues to fight its legal battles in the United States, the Peoples Republic of China is seriously considering the legalization of online casinos, according to Tony Tong the CEO of Pacific Net, a company that distributes baccarat machines.

The decision to spread the gambling industry out to include the internet would likely be a huge benefit to government revenues considering that the house winnings at the casino in Macau are taxed at a 40 percent clip. Already considered a casino capital, the government is likely to license companies there first before moving on to include the rest of the country.

GigaMedia, a company whose website FunTown is one of the largest Mahjong sites in the world, is also hoping to expand into China as well. While also distributing software for poker and other games, the company’s website specializes in members playing online for points and prizes. While running an active online casino blog in Taiwan called the Wretch, the firm is also lending its support to a growing poker site in Europe called EverestPoker.

A GigaMedia representative says that “the UK will likely become a center for online casino gambling,� Over half of the subscribers to GigaMedia reportedly spend 100 hours a week or more on the FunTown website.

-Danny Davis

This entry was posted on Friday, September 15th, 2006 at 8:57 pm and is filed under Poker, International Gaming, Legal Issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.