FT Chinese network: the Communist Youth League of China plans to launch online poker

The Chinese Communist Youth League will establish a joint venture with foreign investors to provide online poker games for Chinese young people. The Communist Youth League of China is called the "assistant and reserve army" of the ruling party ".
However, due to the sensitivity of gaming in China where gambling is prohibited, the company's investors and potential suppliers are interested in how to win prizes to increase players' interest, their views differ greatly.
Hong Kong Foundation Group Limited hopes to organize online poker and chess competitions and provide cash prizes to the winners. The company reached a deal with the Communist Youth League in March.
However, a senior CYL Movie Centre officer said he believed poker games would be offered in the form of "pure entertainment" and would not be rewarded. The Communist Youth League Film Center holds 10% of the shares of the joint venture company China Youth Network Culture.
Both the Foundation Holdings and a Communist Youth League official rejected the British online gaming software vendor Playtech, which is expected to sell software to the Chinese youth network culture as a "huge milestone ", this would "provide gaming in China in a safe way while controlling bets ".
Teddy Cheng, chairman of Foundation Holdings, said: "This is not a gambling activity ." Cheng Zide stressed that the software, games, and forms of the Chinese youth network culture will have to be approved by the Chinese government, and the degree of Playtech participation has not yet been determined.
However, he said that the Chinese government has been gradually easing the definition of gambling, and may soon issue clearer regulatory regulations to give gaming companies more space to operate.
Cheng Zhide said: "I think government regulation is starting to relax ."
It is said that the transaction implies that the Chinese government has changed its attitude towards gambling-related games. However, Communist Youth League officials have denied this statement.
"No," the official said. However, he declined to comment on why the Communist Youth League decided to invest in the joint venture and said he was not familiar with the poker and other games the company would offer.
These different points of view about the joint venture reflect to some extent that in China, there is a lack of definition between prohibited "gambling" activities and legitimate games (such as government-supported lottery tickets) for potential profit.