Taiwan’s role revealed in massive China online gambling bust

A little more light has been shed on the massive online gambling bust Chinese authorities announced earlier this month.

On Thursday, the Taipei Times reported that Taiwanese authorities had arrested 37-year-old Huang Yu-jui over his alleged role in the international online gambling operation. The Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said Huang helped Taiwanese gamblers connect with the illegal online network, which Chinese authorities reported involved over 200 password-protected sites.

Chinese media had reported that the network utilized servers based in Thailand and Thai authorities arrested seven Chinese nationals working as programmers and network engineers. But the CIB said at least some of the servers were based in Taiwan and that the illegal ‘25U Online Gambling Network’ allegedly rented servers from Taipei-based data center Taiwan IDC.

Huang also stands accused of laundering profits from the 25U network. It was this money movement that reportedly prompted the Chinese Ministry of Public Security to contact the CIB about cooperating in the takedown.