PRC busts $1.5b World Cup Bitcoin gambling pyramid scheme

中國破獲了價值1.5億美元的世界杯金字塔模式的賭博團伙

Police in south China’s Guangdong province announced this week that a suspected $1.5 billion illegal football gambling syndicate, that is said to be underpinned by a crypto-currency “pyramid marketing” scheme, has been smashed.

本周，中國南部廣東省的警方宣布，一個涉嫌價值15億美元的非法足球賭博集團已被粉碎。據(jù)稱，該集團的基礎(chǔ)是一項加密貨幣的“傳銷”計劃。

Reports from Xinhua, say authorities made 540 arrests, froze assets of more than 5 million yuan and confiscated virtual currencies worth over 10 million yuan. The syndicate, that was said to involve 20 different “gangs” that recruited 330,000 members in only eight months, used 70 mobile apps and websites as well as 250 online chat groups. Recent syndicate activity was allegedly focused on World Cup matches.

新華社的報道說，有關(guān)部門逮捕了540人，凍結(jié)了500多萬元的資產(chǎn)，沒收了價值超過1000萬元的虛擬貨幣。據(jù)稱，該組織由20個不同的“團隊”組成，在短短8個月內(nèi)招募了33萬名成員，他們使用了70個移動應(yīng)用和網(wǎng)站，以及250個在線聊天小組。最近的財團活動據(jù)說都集中在世界杯的比賽上。

Gambling is illegal in China although officially managed “games of luck,” that are run for charity by China’s Sports Administration from a multitude of “l(fā)ottery shops” across the country, are allowed. The main one of these is the National Sports Lottery and is now said to be the second biggest lottery in the world. Only the Spanish Christmas Lottery, with its staggering US$800 million “El Gordo” jackpot, is thought to be bigger.

賭博在中國是非法的，盡管官方管理的“運氣游戲”(由中國體育局在全國各地的“彩票商店”中為慈善機構(gòu)經(jīng)營)是被允許的。其中最主要的一種是國家體育彩票，據(jù)說是世界上第二大規(guī)模的彩票。只有西班牙的圣誕彩票，被認(rèn)為是更大的，其頭獎是高達(dá)8億美元的“El Gordo”。

Despite China only having ever qualified for one World Cup, in 2002 when it did not win a game, there is still huge interest in the tournament. Something like 300 million people in China tuned in to watch each of the three games in 2002 and general interest in this World Cup has also remained very high.

盡管中國只獲得過一次世界杯的參賽資格，2002年的時候它還沒有贏得任何一場比賽，但人們?nèi)匀粚κ澜绫a(chǎn)生了濃厚的興趣。大約有3億中國人收看了2002年的三場比賽，人們對本屆世界杯的興趣也很高。

According to AFP, data from the China Sports Lottery Management Centre shows turnover at the official lottery shops from football-related betting in the three weeks up to July 1 was worth close to 29 billion Yuan (more than $4 billion), while in the three previous weeks – as in before the World Cup – it was less than five billion yuan.

據(jù)法新社報道,中國體育彩票管理中心的數(shù)據(jù)顯示在官方彩票商店營業(yè)額從七月一日開始的三個星期足球投注價值接近290億元(超過40億美元),而在世界杯三周之前————這個數(shù)字不到五十億元。

These figures of course do not reflect the billions more that are raked in by China’s vast underground gambling networks. These operations, that have long been linked to a host of football match-fixing incidentsacross the globe, are run from a myriad of Chinese-language websites that have servers based outside the PRC.

當(dāng)然，這些數(shù)字并不能反映中國龐大的地下賭博網(wǎng)絡(luò)攝取的數(shù)十億美元。長期以來，這些動作都與全球許多足球比賽事件有關(guān)，它們都是由無數(shù)在中國境外擁有服務(wù)器的中文網(wǎng)站運作的。

Many of these were linked to the Cagayan freeport in the Philippines, but after the country’s tough-talking president, Rodrigo Duterte, instigated a clampdown, Cambodia and Vietnam now appear to become hubs.

其中很多都與菲律賓的卡格揚自由港(Cagayan freeport)有關(guān)，但在言辭強硬的菲律賓總統(tǒng)羅德里戈?杜特爾特(Rodrigo Duterte)發(fā)起打擊行動后，柬埔寨和越南現(xiàn)在似乎成了中心。

In the recent Guangdong operation, police say they noticed in May that an online gambling platform was accepting Bitcoin, so they launched an investigation. They say they discovered a worldwide gambling platform, that had operations across the world and was accepting payments, and making payouts, in the Bitcoin, Ether and Litecoin crypto-currencies. The syndicate’s network was based on a multi-tier pyramid model that encouraged “agents” to bring in new members in return for commission payments, again paid in crypto.

在最近廣東的行動中，警方表示，5月份他們注意到一個在線賭博平臺正在接受比特幣，因此他們展開了調(diào)查。他們說，他們發(fā)現(xiàn)了一個全球賭博平臺，在全球范圍內(nèi)運作，接受比特幣、以太幣和萊特幣的支付和付款。財團的網(wǎng)絡(luò)基于多層金字塔模式，鼓勵“代理商”引入新成員，以換取傭金，同樣是通過密碼支付。

Guangdong police say the action was part of the wider nationwide “Online Clean and Secure” operation that was set up to specially target illegal web-based gambling during the World Cup.

廣東警方表示，這一行動是針對世界杯期間非法網(wǎng)絡(luò)賭博而設(shè)立的全國性“網(wǎng)絡(luò)清潔與安全”行動的一部分。

龍騰網(wǎng)是一個致力于中外民間信息交流的網(wǎng)站。以翻譯外國網(wǎng)民評論為主，傾聽最真實的各國老百姓聲音，開拓國民視野，促進(jìn)中外民間信息交流。