Part of the devices used by the suspects to run the gambling websites. (Photo:The Beijing News/Wu Wei)
(ECNS)-- Chinese police have busted a gigantic online gambling group involving nearly one million members. Their illegal earnings allegedly topped 500 billion yuan ($78.5 billion), more than last year's GDP of Belarus or Oman.
The empire surfaced early last year, when a resident in Yueyang, Hunan Province was abducted. The kidnapper urged the victim's family to pay a gambling debt of 300,000 yuan.
The case is among a string of similar ones under investigation by local police, including the suicide of a woman who could not afford to clear her debt.
The woman's daughter said her mother was gambling through an online platform that accepts late payments, a practice that is so attractive that over 80 percent of some 6,000 people in a community were lured into online gambling.
In a raid last August, police arrested 70 gamblers using similar online platforms. More than 500 gambling websites were later found, which all pointed to companies based in Shenzhen, a city in south China's Guangdong Province.
Last September, a suspect in Shenzhen was confirmed to be an operator of the gambling websites. Police then snapped up several lower-level groups and nailed the big boss surnamed Xu. In the latest campaigns, at least 12 dens were busted and 14 bank accounts were frozen.
The group's data suggests that Xu's online platforms have nearly a million registered members. The gambling money is estimated to be more than 500 billion yuan.
Police also learned that the group runs on a hierarchy scheme. Their servers are located outside the Chinese mainland to avoid investigation.
A gambling website is disguised as a financial management system. (Photo provided by Yueyang police)
