Gambling is illegal in China, there are no casinos and there are strict rules against it. We all know how crazy the Chinese are for gambling and most of the countries that border China have casinos and some are specifically for the Chinese. In Burma there are special areas within the country that are of of bounds for most apart from the Chinese, mainly because these areas are really an extention of China.

Cambodia had been infested by them, and of course now organised crime has many scams running out of here that again are run by Chinese crime gangs.

Laos has a massive casino on the banks of the Mekong built by Chinese with its own airfield I heard. Macau has many casinos also, many are similar to those in Vegas.

Now the reason for this post is that I have noticed a surge in the number of Chinese  Lottery outlets, many are now in metro stations and food halls. They are called the Chinese Welfare Lottery and I’m not sure of the prizes but I have seen many a queue of young people in buying frenzies as I’ve passed through.

The youth unemployment is at an all time high in China, the government has even stopped reporting the numbers. It seems that the Chinese youth are investing what little money they have by gambling, this is something that I never saw when I lived here because the usual clientele were an older demographic killing time. These new customers seem to have a look of desperation.