Telegraph – A 54-year-old prisoner at the Jixi labour camp in the northern province of Heilongjiang said he was forced to play games on the internet in order to build up credit that was traded by his guards for real money, a practice known as “gold-farming”.

the prisoner said online gaming was a far more lucrative activity for the managers of the labour camp than the physical labour the inmates were forced to do. “Prison bosses made more money forcing inmates to play games than they do forcing people to do manual labour,” he said. “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.”

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