China busts online gambling fraudsters that used Macau casino trademarks

Chinese authorities have revealed that their recent cross-border busts in Cambodia helped take down a ring of online gambling sites infringing on Macau casino trademarks.

On Wednesday, Chinese media reported that police in Guangdong province had detained 218 suspects for their involvement in a wide-ranging online gambling operation that allegedly netted the suspects RMB 140m (US $21.5m) from over 1,000 customers on the Chinese mainland.

The gambling sites’ servers were based in Poipet, Cambodia, where local police cooperated with Chinese authorities in the arrests earlier this month of dozens of Chinese nationals accused of running an online extortion scam from hotel rooms at the Golden Crown Casino.

Most of the 218 suspects – including 38 deported from Cambodia – were said to be from Fujian province and were wanted in connection with illegal gambling sites and the online transfer of money obtained via fraudulent means.