William Hill Says So Long to China

One of the largest brands in online gambling has made the sudden – and severe – decision to withdraw from one of the largest potential markets for online gambling in the world.

That was the news out of William Hill this week, as the operator revealed via email that they have plans to shutter their China-facing online operations, a policy that will be effective only days from the announcement.

Some mystery surrounding decision to withdraw

As mentioned earlier, the decision by William Hill – one of Europe’s top online gambling operators – was only revealed via an email to affiliates, and then confirmed by the company once contacted for official comment on the matter.

The initial email revealed almost nothing in the way of reasons or motivations for the about-face on China, saying only that “regulatory reasons beyond our control” caused William Hill to abandon the online gambling market in China.

The official date for withdrawal is Monday, August 19th. At that point, players located in China (and potentially those with a registered account address located in China) will no longer be able to access the poker, casino or sportsbook options of William Hill.

Players will still have access to funds

One silver lining in this otherwise negative situation for Chinese online bettors is that the security of their funds doesn’t seem to be at all at issue. While William Hill will be cutting off access to betting products as of the 19th, affected customers will still have the ability to access their William Hill accounts and to arrange for a cashout from their account long after that date.

In addition, it’s expected that account history will continue to be made available to players well after William Hill leaves China (if not indefinitely), as there’s no telling how long it will take for all impacted customers to learn of the development and make arrangements for the return of their balances at William Hill.

William Hill’s departure a sign of an impending Black Friday for China?

American online poker was changed forever by the developments of Black Friday, when the U.S. government issued indictments against several top Internet poker rooms and effectively shut down a good part of the US-facing online poker industry literally overnight.

Does William Hill’s abrupt departure signal that something similar is brewing in China? Possibly so, but it’s worth noting that William Hill could simply be doing a bit of housekeeping in terms of removing any legal ambiguity from their portfolio.

As was the case in the United States prior to Black Friday, laws regarding online gambling in China are far from models of clarity. William Hill may have simply decided that the risk of operating in China wasn’t worth the upside.

And for all we know, the market may just have been an unprofitable one for William Hill. It’s a commonly-held belief that fraud costs are higher in the Chinese market than in more tightly regulated, mature markets such as the United Kingdom. And successfully marketing to the average Chinese online gambler requires a unique approach and is bolstered by investment in game development focused specifically on the Chinese market.

That cost, when compared to the projected profit William Hill might expect as a successful player in the space, could well have dissuaded William Hill from continuing on.