On November 20, 2019, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China officially issued the Measures on the Administration of Game and Amusement Equipment (hereinafter referred to as the Measures), aiming to further clarify and standardize relevant market access and law enforcement and supervision standards, thereby preventing people, especially minors, from "going astray" in the game and amusement market. The key contents of the Measures basically include the protection of minors, the supervision of gambling and the encouragement of contents. At the same time, the Measures also specify other matters for the implementation of the policy, including detailed rules for the examination of contents, the examination organization and the supervision authority.
Specifically, according to the Measures, game and amusement equipment shall not have or be featured as points betting, refund points, coins, steel balls. To set the multiplier for betting, such as fishing machines and to promote gambling content such as the electronic gambling machines, for example, slot machines, roulette, aqueduct racetrack. At the same time, the Measures requires provincial culture and tourism administration to combine the reality to set standards of area and the per capita area occupied by customers for children's entertainment venues, VR venues, crane machine and other gift machine venues. In terms of operation, if any game and amusement equipment provides gifts in a probabilistic way, the operators are required to clearly indicate the probability range in the front of the game and amusement machines, and further supervise the operation mode of probabilistic profit. In terms of machine audit information, after January 2020, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism will no longer publicly release information on game and amusement equipment in January 2020. The basic information of game and amusement equipment and the approval numbers will be published to the public on the portal websites of provincial culture and tourism administrations.
It is worth noting that the Measures also stipulate that video game (machines) in entertainment venues and other venues shall not be opened to minors except on national holidays. In addition, this policy will be implemented from January 1, 2020, and the implementation transition period will be set from the implementation date to June 30, 2020. Meanwhile, the Notice of the Ministry of Culture on Allowing Domestic and Foreign Enterprises to Engage in Production and Sales of Games and Amusement Equipment ( [2015] No. 576) will be abolished at the same time.
It is obvious that the Measures show the government’s attitude towards the "grey area" of some entertainment venues, that is, a strict control and ban on gambling, because it not only hinders the overall healthy growth of the industry, but also has negative effect on the physical and mental health of minors in China. It is well known that as early as 2012 when China began to strictly crack down on gambling activities, the game and amusement industry were under strict supervision. Now, the Measures will bring new changes to the market; on the one hand, the supervision organization will continue to examine and manage the market strictly, standardize the market, promote the physical and mental health of minors, while on the other hand, also be conducive to enterprises in the game and amusement industry to find better ways of operating, guiding the new direction of entertainment consumption!
※The article is published in the GTI Magazine Issue No. 182 in December 2019 |
