One of China’s leading technology figures has publicly confessed to organizing illegal gambling involving poker games in a Beijing restaurant.

On Monday, the Beijing News reported that Xu Chaojun, former VP of popular Chinese social media platform Renren, had been arrested on June 15 in Beijing for organizing Texas Hold’em poker games involving at least nine other suspects.

The report indicated that the 37-year-old Xu acted as the house for the poker games, personally pocketing around RMB 100k (US $15k) in rake from pots totaling RMB 3m. Police claim the illegal gambling activity had been going on for around two weeks at a restaurant founded by Xu in Beijing’s Dongcheng District.

On July 29, Xu appeared on Beijing television to cop to his involvement in the activity, while simultaneously stressing that the participants’ desire wasn’t monetary. “Money is not the issue here … A loss of RMB 80k doesn’t mean much to these people. Their desire is simply to conquer the game.”