SHOCKING

Chinese media reports recently exposed widespread use of social networking tool WeChat as a platform for illicit online gambling. They cited sources who claimed that gambling organizations lure people into private chat groups using digital “red envelopes” that offer small cash rewards to those who open them. Recruited gamblers top up a WeChat account the organizer offers as their stake, and use sophisticated software to play, with many finding themselves cleaned out overnight. The reports stated that several hundred such “digital syndicates” are currently operating on WeChat, and that thousands of US dollars are being frittered away in such groups every night. Experts have called on police to establish a standardized system for obtaining evidence of illegal online activities.