I guess this story, while bizarre, shouldn’t be much of a suprise. Goldfarming and prison labor. Two great tastes that taste great together.
Full story here:
That said, this one pegs my bullshit meter. I knew a couple of “friends of the family” that did time in various prisons in China. Most didn’t know what a computer was and prisons as a rule don’t have a lot of PC’s. And the article isn’t real clear on details. 300 “miners” working 24/7 and made about $900/day total gross profit (it cannot be $900/day/prisoner).
“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 a day. We didn’t see any of the money. The computers were never turned off.”
While the above may be true, China’s a big place and you can never definitively say something is impossible *somewhere *in China. But I don’t think I’m going out a limb by saying this is probably not a widespread prison practice.