Police in China shut down WeChat gambling ring
Chinese authorities have shut down a gambling ring, which bet on virtual red packets on the WeChat social media app.
Over the course of a year, authorities in Shenzhen have arrested 71 people for engaging in gambling activity on investment holding conglomerate Tencent’s WeChat and QQ platforms, and according to the Xinhua News Agency, the largest amount of money involved was over 60m yuan ($8.8m).
According to Xinhua, Zhang Qian, deputy director of the Investigation and Supervision Department of People’s Procuratorate of Shenzhen’s Nanshan district, said: “Some gambling organisers have introduced robots for automatic calculation to improve the so-called efficiency.”
Zhang added: “We have some difficulties to suspect and investigate these crimes.”
In China, handing out red packets containing money is a traditional way to celebrate holidays and special occasions like weddings or graduations.
Since 2011, it has been possible to send digital red packets over social media platforms and has since become a key feature across social media and communication apps.
According to Tencent, 768 million users received or sent red packets on the app. during the Lunar New Year.
One of the reasons gambling on WeChat is so popular is because it is cheap and easy to get into and as it uses a social media platform, groups can be changed to avoid being caught out.
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