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We are almost certain that Charles D. Fey, the man responsible for slot machines as we know it, would never have imagined that his Liberty Bell machine would kick-start the development of a global industry worth billions of dollars. It is shocking enough even for people born midway through the 20th century, so we can only imagine what this Californian engineer would have thought about the state of the online slots industry today.
It is truly gargantuan, accounting for a vast portion of the global gambling industry’s revenue. Whilst this is a good thing for pretty much everyone involved, it can also create tensions between worldwide powers, something exemplified by the current tension in China and US public relations. Now, the online slots industry that even offers 500 free spins on Fluffy Favourites isn’t exactly to blame for this, but it could definitely suffer from the impending fallout. Let’s take a look at how China and the US could affect the future of the online slots industry?
China’s uneasy relationship with gambling
Although many historical sources point to the Chinese as being some of the earliest inventors of gambling tools such as playing cards, the vast country of more than one billion people has a rather uneasy relationship with gambling of all forms. In fact, gambling is pretty much completely illegal anywhere on the mainland, something that has led to the development of gambling hotspots such as Macau on the country’s fringes.
China’s government sees gambling as a vice that can be instrumental in fuelling civil unrest, therefore meaning that it is illegal both online and in reality. However, despite of this Beijing is struggling to contain the online casino boom in the country, with hundreds of thousands of Chinese gamblers flocking online to do their gambling instead of places like Macau.
A lowdown on China and US international relations
As China has emerged as a global superpower over the last few decades it has rocked the US to its core, mainly because it signifies the start of a new period of global order and control. This has reached a pretty poignant stage especially with the election of Donald Trump, who seems hell-bent on waging economic battle with the Chinese, consistently blaming them for a variety of things.
Because of this the relationship between China and the US isn’t exactly friendly at the moment, with both sides appearing to antagonise each other.
Could this affect the future of the online slots industry?
And what does this mean for the online slots industry? Well, the first thing to say is that due to China’s illegal online gambling problem Beijing is angry that so many millions of Yuan are being sucked out of the country and into the pockets of many American online casino operators and game developers.
As a result China is bound to respond with some sanctions on these companies, as they won’t let it go on indefinitely. This could negatively impact the online slots industry, however if China decides to join the online slot developer community we could see a huge period of growth for the industry. Only time will tell.
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