China, capital of the world’s online gambling scene, is a crowded country with 1.3 billion people. Cities that no one in the western world has ever heard of have populations of 6 million. I am in the city of Dalian, once known as Port Arthur. It is here that I will be facing long hours of boredom. The conference starts with the usual welcomes and speeches. I look around. There are some hundreds of delegates, most sitting with open laptops in front of them and already clicking away. Are they making notes or gambling online?

I open my laptop and wait for it to come to life. I feel a bit embarrassed; after all, my boss has paid good money for me to attend this conference, air tickets, a new suit and lots of food and drink still to come and I am about to gamble online. So I lean back and listen to the welcome speech. I will make notes and email them to my boss. The guy on the podium is jabbering away in Chinese. I cannot understand a single word! I could send off a great email about this. I click into the Silver Spanner, my favorite online casino instead and I mute the speaker on the laptop. Why can’t I mute the speaker on the podium, I think. The guy goes on and on.

I play the slot machines. With no sound it is completely silent. I just have to click with mouse. Nothing else. I try not to show any emotion in this online casino, no matter whether I am winning or losing. The speaker changes and now it’s in English. But it may as well be in Chinese. He talks about the technical advances around the world, mentions a few countries that I have heard of and settles into a monotonous drone. I’m back in the online casino. I hit a progressive jackpot as the applause starts for the end of his speech. No one hears my shout of joy.

Posted on: October 29, 2007

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