Dafabet distances itself from China gambling bust
Arrest of former Dafabet employee involved in criminal operation may have further implications for China-facing operators
Dafabet has distanced itself from reports linking a former employee to a major illegal gambling ring busted by Chinese authorities, amid fears that China’s corruption crackdown could have implications for foreign bookmakers operating in the country.
Chinese media reported that Wang Bo, who left Dafabet in 2012, was extradited back to China from the Philippines on Saturday in a major operation which has seen 125 arrests and 80m yuan (£8m) seized. Wang has reportedly been charged with operating a website which targeted players in China.
But in a statement, dafabet said that Wang had not worked for the company since 2012 and that the criminal investigation is “in no way connected” with the operator, adding that Wang had been arrested for activities with a different company.
Nonetheless, the news will concern foreign operators known to take bets from users in China, with Patrick Jay from Regulus Partners telling eGaming Review that he would be “nervous” about accepting bets from the country.
“I would be nervous about it if I was a director of a company accepting bets in China, but first class operators believe what they are doing is legitimate so I’m minded to trust them,” Jay said.
“Nonetheless as when the US started clamping down and people were getting picked up at airports, it would probably make sense to take a look at the operation and review the situation. Everyone must remember that the law is what the Chinese government decides it is. There is no more powerful sentence in the English language than the one that begins: ‘The government in Beijing has decided’,” he added.
China is currently undergoing a major anti-corruption drive spearheaded by President Xi Jinping, with illegal gambling operations among those targeted.
There have been a series of high-profile busts, including one ring worth in the region of 1bn yuan (£99m) which was operating an online gaming platform with 24 million registered users before being shut down last year.
But according to China-based lawyer Steve Dickinson from law firm Harris Moure, authorities have tended to target operations run by criminal gangs, which often steal money from users, rather than established foreign operators offering their sites in China.
“In my opinion, the criminal prosecutions will be limited to truly illegal ‘scam’ sites,” Dickinson said. “But this could, of course, spill over into a more general blocking of gambling sites,” he added.