Shanghai police announce results of cross-border gambling crackdown

Shanghai police announced on 26 October 2022 that during this year's Hundred Days Action they solved multiple cross-border gambling criminal cases, placing more than 800 suspects under criminal coercive measures and punishing more than 1,100 people who took part in gambling¹. Funds and assets involved in the cases, amounting to more than RMB 170 million, were seized, frozen or confiscated¹.

The force said it destroyed 80 gambling platforms and 42 promotion platforms, and took down 27 payment platforms, "running points" platforms and underground banks¹. Police spokesperson Zhuang Liqiang said cross-border gambling groups have moved physical casinos online, recruiting bets through apps and running cross-border live-streamed betting, and have extended into emerging sectors such as esports¹.

Police described two main types of cross-border gambling crime: organizing people to take part in overseas online baccarat and online sports betting, and providing technology, funds, promotion and recruitment support to overseas gambling apps and websites¹. In one Baoshan district case, four domestic agents obtained gambling website accounts from overseas and set up cameras inside overseas casinos to live-stream the whole gambling process, letting players bet against real dealers¹.

In a Minhang district case, police acted on a public report in March about a man called "Lao Xu" who claimed he could provide channels to gamble overseas and "guaranteed safety"¹. The gang promoted a so-called "safe environment" to recruit gamblers, offered services such as betting on a customer's behalf, and developed 11 lines of third-tier agents, with betting turnover in the tens of millions of yuan¹. Minhang police moved in the early hours of 27 July across three districts of the city and in Zhejiang, Anhui and Jiangsu, detaining more than 40 people including a suspect surnamed Feng on charges of running a casino and gambling, and seizing 33 mobile phones and 12 computers¹.

A separate case involved an app offering betting on esports and sports events, run by what police called a full-chain gang: an overseas betting data company as the "source," a domestic data access company as the "transit," an odds operation company as the "hub," the app operator as the "platform," and third-party companies or individuals as the "settlement hub"¹. Police carried out arrests in Shanghai and in six provinces and cities including Hainan, Guangdong, Shaanxi and Zhejiang, detaining more than 100 people; more than 50 have so far been sentenced for the crime of running a casino and more than 40 given administrative penalties¹.

What it means for players

The announcement confirms that Chinese police treat both the organizers and the players in cross-border online gambling as targets. More than 1,100 people who gambled were punished, and the cases covered online baccarat, online sports betting and betting on esports and sports events through an app¹. The Baoshan case shows that playing through a domestic agent who streams an overseas casino is enough to be caught up in a criminal investigation, with all members of the gang including ordinary players detained¹. The Minhang case shows police acting on a member of the public's report about someone advertising access to overseas gambling¹. China's rules on cross-border gambling by Chinese citizens and the penalties for being caught gambling in China set out how such cases are handled, and the wider picture of online gambling enforcement against players across Asia shows how other jurisdictions have pursued bettors.

What happens next

The announcement gives no further scheduled steps. It states that more than 50 people have already been sentenced for running a casino and more than 40 given administrative penalties in the esports and sports betting case, and that investigations into the other cases continue¹.