Chinese police bust a World Cup gambling ring with more than $1 billion in cryptocurrency It’s part of the country’s larger battle against illegal gambling

From The Verge

---

Chinese authorities have arrested six suspects behind a World Cup gambling ring that was hosting more than 10 billion yuan — or $1.5 billion USD — worth of cryptocurrency bets, according to a statement released yesterday by the police department in Guangdong province.

The gambling syndicate ran on the dark web, accepting bets in the form of bitcoin, ethereum, and litecoin for an eight-month stretch before being apprehended. It attracted more than 300,000 players from different countries, and 8,000 “agents” who earned commissions for recruiting new members through a pyramid scheme-like system, according to the South China Morning Post.

World Cup gambling is big worldwide — but China’s been cracking down on it. Most forms of gambling are illegal across almost the entire country, outside of two officially sanctioned lotteries.

Read more: https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/13/17569006/world-cup-gambling-ring-china-police-cryptocurrency

---

I think a war on gambling in China is just as futile as the war on drugs in the west. People have their vices and one thing I've learned from hanging around in casinos is that there are huge number of Chinese people that absolutely love to gamble.

Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

---

Follow @contentjunkie to stay up to date on more great posts like this one.

---

Click one of the links below to signup for a free crypto trading account