China: Yancheng police arrest 15 suspects and confiscates $3.8M worth of digital currencies over EOS gambling app

Chinese citizens have been using the latest EOS-based illegal gambling app to access online gambling, despite the ban

Police in Yancheg city, China, specifically Jiangsu province, have busted an alleged online gambling operation built on the EOS blockchain network and arrested its developers confiscating EOS and BTC digital currencies worth $3.8 million.

Toutiao reported that the Yancheng police have been investigating the operation since it came to their attention in October 2020.

According to the police report, in November, the department reportedly investigated 27 million transactions and found 26 smart contract addresses – the addresses in which the operators used for the betting and prize distribution – they associated with the gambling platform, known as Biggame.

The Yancheng police conducted raids back in December 2020 in Guangzhou, Suzhou, Shanghai and other major cities in which was said to be the residence of the Biggame operators and subsequently arrested 15 suspects who were involved in the gambling operation.

The Yancheng police said the gambling platform had brought in over $10 million for the operators since it was founded in June 2018.

The police also revealed that “this was the first case in which criminals had used smart contracts to operate an online gambling business in China.”

The Yancheng city police was also responsible for the digital currency bust of PlusToken, which is said to be one of the biggest scams in the industry.

SiGMA News has been reporting the purge on illegal activity in China and has recently reported that so far more than 17,000 cross border cases have been investigated.

In November, the police unit seized 194,775 BTC, 833,083 Ether, 27.6 million EOS and other digital currencies, cumulatively worth $4.2 billion. A Jiangsu court ruled that the digital currencies would be sold and the proceeds remitted to the national treasury.

According to the official data from China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Chinese government had arrested 60,000 gambling suspects and busted 1,400 illegal gambling sites in the first nine months of 2020.

Online gambling in the country has been banned for several years, however, Chinese citizens have been using the latest EOS-based illegal gambling app (another digital currency channel) to access online gambling, despite the ban.

The rise of digital currencies has enabled this illegal activity, with billions of dollars’ worth of illegal proceeds exchanging hands every month.

Read more about the rise of digital currencies here.

Source: Coingeek

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