WeChat gambling crackdown ahead of Lunar New Year party

China’s social media giant WeChat is warning users that it won’t tolerate illegal gambling being conducted via its networks.

On Thursday, WeChat issued a statement saying it planned to strictly enforce its “zero-tolerance” policy against illegal online gambling activity during the Lunar New Year celebrations that kick off next week.

WeChat said it had beefed up its technical capabilities to detect “gambling-related behavior” on its network and that serious transgressors would have their information forwarded to the police for further sanction.

WeChat said its enforcement efforts over the past two years had uncovered over 2,300 chat groups on its network that were engaged in illegal online gambling, and that 30k users had seen their accounts restricted or disabled entirely. WeChat had also cooperated with police in 28 illegal gambling investigations that resulted in the arrests of 100 WeChat users.