“Many large internet companies are involved in the investigations,” one police officer involved in the probes said. Investigators also implicated major courier companies including New York-listed listed ZTO Express, Shanghai-listed YTO Express and STO Express, as well as a number of logistics companies. E-commerce site Pinduoduo appears to have been especially vulnerable. They include China’s biggest online search engine Baidu Inc., Tencent Holdings’ messaging apps QQ and WeChat and Ant Group’s payment service Alipay, authorities say. Investigators found that illegal gambling sites have relied on major search engines and social media platforms that are household names to lure gamblers while using leading e-commerce platforms and delivery companies to facilitate massive fund transactions disguised as online shopping deals. A dark corner of the cyber world benefited from increasingly convenient internet-based payment and logistics services as e-commerce soared amid the pandemic - illegal online gambling.Īnd the shadowy, often offshore operators of illicit gambling sites found witting or unwitting enablers in some of China’s leading tech giants, according to police who are conducting a massive crackdown on an unprecedented surge in online gambling.
