Illegal Online Betting, Fraud Through SE Asia US$64 Billion Per Year

China's "strict laws on face-to-face and online gambling" have "pushed organized crime groups into Southeast Asia, where they can target this lucrative market from a safe distance and work with local elites to protect themselves from Chinese law enforcement."

It is a "national, nonpartisan, independent agency" established by the U.S. Congress, according to a more than 70-page "Southeast Asian Transnational Crime" report published by the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP), based in Washington, DC.

The report on transnational crimes in Southeast Asia states: "Fraud operations spreading in the region today are rooted in a loosely regulated network of casinos and online gambling that some governments promote as making a legitimate contribution to economic development, beginning in the 1990s and accelerating in the 2000s."

The U.S. Peace Research Institute says transnational syndicates operating in Southeast Asia pose a global threat to consumers, including the public in the U.S.

"As of the end of 2023, the conservative estimate of the annual value of the funds stolen by these syndicates worldwide is US$64 billion."

The institute added: "The Chinese have been completely banned from gambling in [mainland] China with an estimated annual gaming market size of $40 billion to $80 billion, making them a major target for overseas gambling businesses."

The U.S.-based group observed: "As criminal networks become more powerful, the Chinese state is more concerned about the threat of activity against its citizens, who are the main victims of criminal fraud and forced labor capture through fraudulent trafficking."

The U.S. Peace Research Institute said some of Southeast Asia's illegal activities were "shadowed by veneers of apparent legitimacy: casinos, resorts, hotels and special economic zones," adding that "the decentralization of these networks to the region ... is closely related to the most vulnerable areas of governance."

China has had some success with online gambling against its citizens and a crackdown on general fraud and fraud operations through cooperation with other countries, but the problem has been resolved to some extent rather than a full eradication, the institute suggested. 동행복권파워볼

"The network can avoid a crackdown by law enforcement agencies by transferring fraudulent operations between compounds within or between countries, depending on the situation," the report said.

It also added: "In late 2023, a move by Chinese law enforcement to close fraudulent organizations on the Myanmar-China border led to the migration of many fraudulent organizations to the southern state of Karen, Myanmar, the Thai border, Cambodia and Laos."