The latest reports of government crackdowns on the online gambling industry have been coming from Taiwan and Greece, where arrests were recently made as a result of investigations involving alleged illegal online gambling rings. Reflecting feeble attempts by the government to show resistance to an industry that is growing much too big for prohibition, these latest arrests stemmed from police raids of internet cafes in Greece and offices and residences in Taiwan.

The case in Greece involved three internet cafes that apparently installed online gambling software to help facilitate the placing of bets at an unnamed UK based sportsbook. This case is most interesting considering recent talks by another UK online gambling site, William Hill, to seek out a ruling by the European Union if their application for a betting license in Greece is declined. The problem at hand is that Greece has one of the notorious state-run gambling monopolies in all of Europe.

Known  as OPAP, this large monopoly has openly declared they are the only company with rights to offer betting services of any kind to Greek citizens, and have gone so far as to threatening its own residents who gamble with foreign online casinos. Having brought forth an arrest of a man in Piraeus last month, this latest series of raids in Arta, Western Greece, resulted in the arrests of all three internet cafe owners and six more Greek residents who were gambling online at the time of the raids.

In China, Taiwanese authorities are stating their latest bust is the largest to date. Claiming to have taken down a large gambling ring that had allegedly brought in $1.5 billion in online gambling revenue in a six month time period, Chinese police officials say that over 120 officers were used to raid eighteen offices and the homes of twelve individuals suspected of operating the ring. Two members of the ring are a Danshui Precinct police officer and a criminal investigator, who both are being accused of soliciting online bettors to place stakes on futures bets, lottery and other forms of gambling.