Chinese police have cracked down on illegal soccer betting rings and caught over 120 people, including residents of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao, which accepted online bets on the soccer World Cup. Among the people arrested is a man named Guo, who had been operating as the general agent of an overseas gambling company on the Chinese mainland since 2003.
“The way to run an online betting ring is similar to the way pyramid selling schemes work. An overseas betting company hires a chief agent to represent its business in the Chinese mainland and the chief agent goes on to hire layers of punters to place bets,” said Jin Xiang, an official with the Beijing police.
Evidence found on one of the nine seized computer showed that a third-class agent under Guo accepted around $13.5m in bets during January and February this year alone.
“This form of gambling poses a challenge to the police,” added Xu Hu, vice head of the public order maintenance bureau under the ministry. “It is more difficult for us to detect gambling activities, to identify and reclaim betting funds.”
Gambling has been outlawed on the Chinese mainland since 1949, but in recent years, sports events such as the World Cup have proved too tempting for betting fans.
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