On March 10, 2024, the Supreme People's Procuratorate released the 2023 national procuratorial organs' main case handling data, showing that procuratorial organs across the country severely cracked down on various criminal offenses committed through the use of the Internet, prosecuting 323,000 people. Among them, some online gambling problems related to pan-entertainment social apps such as voice rooms and live broadcasts have become the focus of attention. Driven by huge profits, some pan-entertainment social category apps such as voice rooms and live broadcasts have hidden gambling games, and even derive a mature "black and gray" industrial chain.
Since the beginning of this year, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) has launched special actions such as "Cleanup and 2024 Spring Festival Network Environment Rectification", and Antiy Mobile Security's "Anjian Risk Application Detection and Early Warning Platform" has cooperated with all parties in the ecosystem to carry out multiple rounds of excavation and public exposure of hidden gambling games and gambling activities in pan-entertainment social apps such as voice rooms and live broadcasts. Under the coordinated governance of all parties in the industrial chain such as regulatory authorities and terminal manufacturers, the industry ecology has shown a standardized and orderly development trend. But at the same time, we still found that some developers "secretly crossed Chen Cang" and carried out "hidden" online game gambling games through anchors' private cashbacks, probability games, and gambling-related module applications, so as to make illegal profits.
In the process of long-term and continuous attention to the current mobile ecology infringing on the rights and interests of users, Antiy Mobile Security's "Anjian Risk Application Detection and Early Warning Platform" found that the gambling-related problems of pan-entertainment social apps such as voice rooms and live broadcasts contain three elements, and the three elements constitute two links:
Three elements:
1. Local currency investment (fiat currency, virtual currency, numerical currency, tokens exchanged for fiat currency, etc., with monetary properties or virtual items)
2. Probability games with small and big (including probability games that have been transformed into small and big)
3. The output of the probability game is fiat currency or can be exchanged for fiat currency through various channels
There are two possibilities for discovering the three elements at the same time in the platform:
1. The platform is suspected of opening a casino, which means that the platform has the three elements of gambling-related conditions for users to be involved in gambling at the same time, that is, the platform actively organizes users to participate in gambling-related behaviors;
2. The platform is suspected of helping to open a casino, and the user can use the platform to carry out gambling-related behaviors (probability play is provided by the platform), and some of them need to be realized with the help of a third party (such as the withdrawal channel is provided by a third party), and the platform is aware of this situation but fails to take corresponding effective measures to fulfill its network security management obligations.
Some of the typical problems are shared as follows:
The platform is suspected of opening a casino
In pan-entertainment social categories such as voice rooms and live broadcasts, the link of the platform suspected of opening a casino is very clear:
The user uses the platform's game with a small probability to obtain the corresponding virtual items→ the user converts the obtained virtual items or virtual currency into tokens that can be withdrawn by the platform→ the user withdraws through the platform's withdrawal function.
The platform provides users with a small and large probability of play, and ordinary users (non-B-side) can directly withdraw tokens through the platform, which completely constitutes a closed loop of gambling, and all links related to the three elements of gambling can be carried out in the platform, and the platform is suspected of opening a casino link.
The platform is suspected of helping to open casinos
The difference between the platform suspected of helping to open a casino link and the platform's suspected opening of a casino link is that the monetization channel for gambling-related funds is not provided by the platform, but by the anchors or guilds within the platform, and it is also the current live broadcast and other most mainstream pan-entertainment social products involved in gambling.
Behavior path: The user uses the platform's game with a small probability to obtain the corresponding virtual items → The user trades the obtained virtual items to the anchor or scalper (the purchase turnover is one of the more obvious manifestations) → The anchor gives the user cash back at the black market price of the virtual item.
Under this link, because the platform provides users with a small and large probability of playing, and the user and the withdrawal anchor or guild are in the initial communication within the platform, therefore, the platform is suspected of helping to open a casino link to meet the situation of function provision (gambling establishment) + recruitment of gamblers + poor supervision, there is a platform suspected of helping to open a casino link.
In recent years, the public security organs and other regulatory authorities have intensified their efforts to crack down on gambling-related issues in pan-entertainment social categories such as voice rooms and live broadcasts, and have investigated and dealt with a large number of illegal gambling-related platforms. Even so, driven by profits, many Internet companies have gone to great lengths to package key regulatory links into more and more covert ways to evade governance, and the variety of methods is staggering. Among them, some online gambling problems related to pan-entertainment social APP such as voice rooms and live broadcasts are easy to become dependent on online gambling and increase the probability of addiction for users who are not strong in rational thinking ability and weak in willpower. This in turn leads to problems such as family breakdown, breeding crime, and endangering social order.
At the same time, with the "involution" of the industry brought about by gambling-related behaviors, some platforms have adopted more aggressive and risky strategies in order to grab users, frequently challenging legal red lines, and intensifying vicious competition in the industry. Once it is found that there are gambling-related problems, the platform may face penalties such as fines, suspension of business for rectification, etc., and in serious cases, the corporate legal person and its executives will also bear joint and several liability or independent liability, resulting in the inability of the enterprise to operate normally and the restriction of personal freedom.
In view of the historical problem of gambling on pan-entertainment social platforms such as voice rooms and live broadcasts, based on regulatory policy requirements and multi-party consensus, the detection and identification standards of Antiy Mobile's "Security Risk Application Detection and Early Warning Platform" were finally formed, providing a reference for developers to continuously improve their security operation level.
Antiy Mobile Security's "Security Risk Application Detection and Early Warning Platform" testing and identification standards
With more than 10 years of accumulation of mobile security technology, Antiy Mobile Security has maintained long-term attention and continuous discovery of the problems of mobile Internet chaos and strong social public opinion that are the focus of national supervision. Based on the ability to systematically detect illegal applications, Antiy Mobile Security will increase the detection of in-app probabilistic games, fiat currency investment and cash-out behaviors, and cooperate with regulatory authorities, mobile phone manufacturers and all parties in the industry chain to carry out ecological governance and protect the rights and interests of users.