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From hooligans to elites, the World Cup attracts billions of people. According to an announcement made on July 12 by the Guangdong Provincial Public Security Department, the province's police have launched a wide-ranging campaign against illicit gambling organizations. This operation involves 21 security authorities and has, to date, disabled 70 websites, approximately 540 gaming applications and more than 250 chat rooms. Many accounts, collectively valued at more than 260 million yuan (nearly 39 million dollars at the time of the press) have been frozen.
A targeted organization was a pyramid scheme in which "agents" – who took advantage of these illegal bets – were attracted. players who want to bet on the World Cup using virtual currency.
This particular betting platform, whose servers were apparently built outside of China, supported Bitcoin, Ether and Litecoin and attracted more than 8,000 agents and 330,000 regional players in China and around the world. The site reported the equivalent of more than 10 billion yuan ($ 1.5 billion) during its eight-month operation.
Chinese authorities were able to close the illegal website, arrest six key agents, freeze five bank accounts totaling more than five million yuan, confiscate more than 10 million yuan of illegally obtained cryptocurrency, and seize a large amount hardware and software used by the betting ring. The investigation is ongoing, according to the announcement.
The ethics and regulations surrounding the blockchain-based game have been a hotly debated topic as the popularity of the technology has increased. In November 2016, ETHNews examined the possible future of blockchain gambling and how it could be regulated. In January 2017, we explored some of the ethical issues surrounding the topic. Just this week, the new Augur online forecast market has given football fans another way to bet on the semi-finals of the World Cup.
Nathan Graham is a full-time editor for ETHNews. He lives in Sparks, Nevada, with his wife, Beth, and his dog, Kyia. Nathan has a pbadion for new technologies, writing grants and news. He spends his time rafting on the American River, playing video games and writing.
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