Another massive online gambling bust in China
News on 1 Apr 2015
News on 1 Apr 2015
Police in the coastal Chinese province of Guangdong have announced the successful conclusion of a major anti-online gambling operation in which 1,071 people were detained, 40 servers and computers were seized, and bank cards and deposit books taken into custody as evidence.
The China Daily newspaper reports that most of the suspects detained are bankers, gang members and technicians who developed software and websites for online gambling, according to Lu Feng, director of the general office with Guangdong provincial department of public security, on Wednesday.
On Wednesday Lu revealed that more than 330 million yuan (US$52.8 million) in gambling money deposited in bank accounts owned by the gang has been frozen.
“It is, so far, the largest online gambling case that has ever been cracked on the mainland since the founding of People’s Republic of China in 1949 according to statistics revealed by the Ministry of Public Security,” Lu told a press conference in Guangzhou.
This is the largest number of suspects detained and the largest amount of gambling money ever seized by police in a single case, Lu added.
According to Lu, a large number of bank cards, deposit books, notebook computers, servers, mobile phones, cars and other equipment were also seized during the police operation, which involved over 6,000 police officers.
The police operation, code named “221”, was mainly launched in the cities of Shantou and Chaozhou in eastern Guangdong on December 21 after several months of investigation.
Yu Canxian, director of online security at the Guangdong department of public security, said the gang had established more than 200 gambling websites and platforms, with servers in overseas regions and countries, and used online banking services.
The gang had attracted more than 400,000 Chinese citizens to illegally bet on lottery tickets in the mainland and Hong Kong, Yu claimed.
Chinese provincial authorities were recently directed by the central government to review and clampdown on illegal online lottery activity, a move which resulted in several major companies suspending their services .
