China has scored a major victory against illegal cross-border gambling after shutting down a $100.8 billion Philippine operation. [Image: Shutterstock.com]
MPS makes arrests in China
China’s Ministry of Public Security (MPS) has arrested 93 suspects on domestic soil linked to an illegal online gambling platform worth RMB725.5 billion (US$100.8 billion) in the Philippines.
Mega case due to cross-border online gambling”
State media company Video surveillance said Sichuan police, under the MPS, China’s nationwide police force, had uncovered the “major cross-border online gambling case.”
While the MPS arrested the nearly 100 suspects in mainland China in June, the server of the illegal online platform called CAGAYAN was in the Philippines.
The MPS said the platform’s operators promoted the illegal online site in China to entice Chinese nationals to sign up for memberships and deposit money.
Chinese nationals targeted
Inside Asia Gaming on Friday quoted the MPS as saying this was the case The investigation uncovered over 300 people associated with the operation of the website. Under the guise of hotel service jobs with high salaries, these suspects recruited Chinese nationals to move to the Philippines.
Upon arrival, CAGAYAN staff would train recruits to “accept online gambling jobs and become core members of the online gambling platform.”
According to media reports, the illegal platform had almost a million members and over 50,000 agents of Chinese nationality were involved.
hatched a plan to arrest them when they returned to China on vacation
In order to arrest the Chinese suspects based in the Philippines, the MPS hatched a plan to arrest them when they returned to China on vacation in June 2023. The MPS divided its forces into several groups and conducted police raids in over 20 provinces, “including Henan.” , Hebei and Hunan.”
The result of this carefully planned operation was the arrest of the 93 suspects as well as the seizure of bank cards and cell phones. The subsequent investigation led to the recent disclosure of the scale of the illegal platform, with a $100.8 billion “current account.”
China on the rise
The crackdown on the illegal operation in the Philippines is another major success for the MPS and Beijing’s commitment in 2020 to create a “blacklist” system for illegal cross-border gambling tourist destinations such as the Philippines.
Beijing’s big breakthrough came in 2020, when police shut down 2,260 illegal online gambling platforms and arrested over 75,000 people. A year later, the MPS made history by defeating junket boss Alvin Chau.
The massive fallout from Chau’s death continued last week when Hong Kong regulator SFC warned it would delist two Macau gambling firms once owned by the jailed gambling expert.
