Police investigating Chinese web services and search company

Chinese media reports Monday indicate that the giant Chinese search and web services corporate Baidu is assisting police who are investigating the promotion of gambling websites that have used fake business licenses.

Allegations have been made that many online gambling sites have photo-shopped other companies’ business licenses in order to register for Baidu promotional services, the Beijing News reported Monday.

According to the report, search queries with key words like “casino” have resulted in high levels of exposure, visitors and increased wagering activity on the sites, generating millions of yuan and hundreds of thousands of visitors.

All of the gambling websites were found to have later secretly modified the company information listed on the business licenses used to obtain initial promotional approval, according to a statement released by Baidu on its official Sina Weibo social account on Monday.

The statement added that the company has firmly banned commercial promotion of gambling.

Anonymous insiders told reporters that in order to meet sales goals, some agencies give salespeople 80 percent of promotion fees as perks.

The Beijing News claims that the companies whose information was forged are completely unrelated to gambling and were not registered for promotion on Baidu.

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