Inhabitants of Asia account for more than 60% of the worldwide population so it is predictable that it is currently the largest gambling market in the world.
China is home to a range of different forms of betting such as lotteries, sports markets and slot machines. Some of the forms of betting available are actually illegal with non-approved sites, such as poker, various casino games and sports betting. The Chinese Sports Lottery have a monopoly on all sports betting with the country. Even though it is extremely popular within the country, online betting is in the main part illegal; and operators, agents as well as promoters are often tracked down by authorities.
Those who bet online in China usually use internationally recognised and licensed sites that enable them to bet on live casino games and make pre-match and in-play bets on sporting events.
Macau is a location very popular within China amongst gamblers and people will visit there to play in the casinos and participate in sports betting as they are legal here. Macau is a Special Administrative Region and therefore has its own government and laws. However, Macau does not license online gaming operations and doesn’t even acknowledge online gambling.
In Hong Kong some forms of gambling are legal so long as they are managed by the Hong Kong Jockey Club, who are sponsored by the Government and includes gambling activity such as betting on football matches, horse racing and lotteries. Mahjong is also allowed in Hong Kong, but poker is mainly operated in an underground format. Due to any other form of gambling being illegal and the fact it can result in harsh penalties, people from Hong Kong generally prefer to travel to Macau to participate in gambling activities.
In Singapore gambling as a whole is banned and the country has in the recent past blocked a large number of offshore gambling sites and made it illegal to use unauthorised gambling sites.
Japan allows some forms of gambling, but online gambling is not allowed and overall it is heavily controlled and restricted. Lottery, some betting on sports and scratch cards are legally permitted. The Japanese Government cannot however stop people from accessing foreign gambling sites; and even though there are tight regulations, sports betting and gambling are extremely popular. More complex betting activities such as live sports, poker and betting with fixed odds are usually accessed via international gambling sites.
It is no surprise that Asia is the biggest gambling market in the world given the size of the continent, however the laws in regards to gambling do vary from country to country. There is no doubt that if gambling laws and regulations are relaxed, Asia on the whole would be able to freely enjoy trusted gaming sites such as SBOTBET; but in meantime, Asians will have to be patient. At present in some countries it is entirely legal to gamble, others ban it entirely. Whereas it is just heavily regulated in places, such as India, which is seeing a massive growth in online gambling at present, even though gambling is very restricted throughout the country.
