China Alleged To Use Prisoners In Lucrative Internet Gaming

SoyQueSoy pointed out an article that reveals it's not all fun, but forced games for some Chinese prisoners. It is alleged that after a day of hard labor some inmates are forced to work through the night as gold farmers. "Prison bosses made more money forcing inmates to play games than they do forcing people to do manual labor," [prisoner] Liu told the Guardian. "There were 300 prisoners forced to play games. We worked 12-hour shifts in the camp. I heard them say they could earn 5,000-6,000rmb [£470-570] a day. We didn't see any of the money. The computers were never turned off."

A variant of this happens in Nevada

[straponego]

This is according to a friend of mine who used to tend bar at a Reno casino. I don't know how much has changed since then; maybe a local can tell us more. Slot machines in Nevada are regulated and required to pay out a certain percentage over time. This means that the longer one type of slot at a casino doesn't pay out, the higher the odds are that they will soon. Once a casino got to the point where a payoff was probable, a bus would pull up full of compulsive gamblers, all wearing the same windbreakers. They'd sit at every machine in the casino and play until someone hit the jackpot. These people were not allowed to keep their winnings (or not much of them), but their habit was paid for.

Since they never tipped, the bartenders hated them. Whenever they saw the bus pull up, they'd place drinks at the slots to reserve the spots.

Anyway, wherever there is money you will find corruption. Rule of law (applied equably), transparency, and cultural values are all that mitigate this. The only reason this doesn't happen in American for-profit prisons is that the money isn't good enough, yet. But the dollar continue to drop. Your kids might gold-farm for the Chinese.

A variant of this happens in Bellevue, WA

[PPH]

We have a mall with a lottery ticket booth. On occasion we get a whole crew of people (old, immigrants, hobo-looking) playing large volumes of scratch tickets. The mob boss (big fat guy in a cowboy hat) sits nearby, keeping an eye on his people.

It's a money laundering operation. It doesn't have to pay back 100 cents on the dollar. It just has to be competitive with other methods of converting 'dirty' cash into clean.

One thing that makes the entire operation pretty obvious: There's a food court, Starbucks and whatnot there. In any other setting, that would be a magnet for the local cops. But not here. If they've got business in the mall, they go in quickly, take care of it and get out. Fast. Evidently, there's an agreement for them to stay out.

Re:US employs 80,000 prisoners for labor

[Anonymous Coward]

Just because someone is in prison doesn't mean they should be slaves. Forget the obvious ramifications and simply focus on the most obvious, the person falsely accused.

Case in point: Both wife and I were jailed and prosecuted for something we didn't do. Everything eventually came out, full confession by the instigator, and we were cleared, but sadly we're not alone. This country does not, and has not for quite some time, follow the "innocent until proven guilty" method. Quite the opposite, in fact. Get accused of something sometime and let me know how everything works out for you.

In the meantime, forced labor is forced labor. You can call it what you want, but I was subjected to slave labor conditions in the past and due to my refusal to participate, I was branded uncooperative and spent every day of my sentence. And for the record, I didn't do that one either. And yes, again there was proof.

Should we have been used for slave labor? I think not.