Chinese police bust another major online betting ring

Chinese police in southern Guangdong province have described the latest closure of a major illegal betting enterprise as the first involving a significant amount of cyber currency, revealing that the ring generated the equivalent of USD$ 1.5 billion in wagers, much of it on World Cup football events.

Six alleged ringleaders have been arrested and the contents of their bank accounts frozen, according to a police online report; a further 10 million yuan in cyber currencies held by the suspects has also been seized.

The South China Morning Post reported that the online betting platform operated on the Dark Web, and accepted only cyber currencies such as bitcoin, ethereum, and litecoin. During the eight months of the gambling platform’s operation, the site attracted 330,000 registered users from numerous countries, and built an army of over 8,000 agents who earned commissions for recruiting new members through a pyramid scheme, the police said.

Last September, the Chinese government shut down all local crypto exchanges and banned initial coining offerings amid fears they could create financial instability. The Chinese central bank announced this week that the yuan-bitcoin trading pair has dropped to less than one percent of the world’s total bitcoin trading.

Chinese authorities have foiled a string of gambling syndicates since the start of the World Cup. Last week police in Beijing arrested over 40 suspects linked to an online gambling scheme with bets worth 320 million yuan.

In a separate statement on Thursday, Guangdong police said they had arrested a total of 540 suspects from over 20 gambling rings, and frozen 260 million yuan related to the criminal activities, in a special campaign to crack down on World Cup gambling.

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