China’s online lottery ban is hard on 500.com

Once high-flying Hong Kong online lottery seller 500.com has undoubtedly been feeling the pain of the Chinese government’s ten month “temporary” ban on online lottery sales (see previous reports) and this week started what appears to be a diversification program.

The company has announced an agreement to buy a controlling 63 percent interest in the Chinese licensed online payment processing company Zhejiang Shangmeng Technology Limited for a consideration of US$35.6 million.

Zhejiang operates the Sumpay.cn processing website, and 500.com will work with the management to expand and diversify the business and reduce its own processing costs.

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