Police Arrest a Team Running Illegal Gambling DApp in China

The Jianhu police have arrested a team of developers in the city of Yancheng in Jianhu province, China. The team has been operating a decentralised gambling app on the EOS network. Police have seized 26 million Yuan ($3.8 million USD) in EOS and BTC in illegal revenue.

China’s First Illegal Gambling DApp shut down

In a news report issued by the Jianhu Police, they have arrested 25 suspects that have been part of the online casino called “DAPP Biggame“. Between June 2018 and December 2020, the team behind Biggame allegedly profited from the operations with crypto assets worth 60 million Yuan, or nearly $10 million USD, law enforcement officials said. This is China’s first case involving a decentralised digital casino.

The report states that a preliminary investigation was opened on November 13, 2020, where they analysed 27 million transaction data in order to find contract addresses used for betting, lottery, and prize distribution, which led them to the perpetrators. Cryptocurrencies were used as a medium for betting and provided a platform to participate in illegal betting.

This DAPP does not need to be downloaded. Users can access and log in on the public chain or through various grapefruit coin wallets, and directly use the grapefruit coins to place bets.

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Jianhu police

The DApp allowed players to use EOS smart contracts to place bets on various games such as Dice, Texas Hold’em, and others.

Illegal Activity on The Blockchain

Toward the end of 2020 Yancheng court sentenced individuals that were behind a multinational pyramid scheme to up to 11 years in prison. The perpetrators defrauded investors out of 14.8 billion yuan (US$2.25 billion). The size of the PlusToken scam makes it one of the largest uncovered Ponzi schemes in China to have taken advantage of blockchain technology.

The Chinese police started an “Internet Cleansing Movement” operation which is set to clamp down on illegal online activities from online gambling to money laundering.

Since Q4 last year, an increasing number of court rulings show that nearly 100 individuals have been convicted for knowingly laundering money through crypto over-the-counter trading desks that involved more than $30 million worth of Tether’s USDT.