Ukraine’s National Police nabbed four suspects, who reportedly ran six fake cryptocurrency exchanges in the country. They were arrested last week from Dnipro city, after which their homes were raided, and several computers and smartphones were seized. The police do not have any report on the stolen funds yet.

The alleged culprits lured users by promoting the exchanges with fake positive ratings and online reviews. The police reportedly said that the suspects had “special knowledge and skills in the field of programming” and “have created their own CMS-system for managing the content of exchange sites.”

During the raid of the suspects’ homes, the police reportedly seized computers, flash drives, smartphones, and other devices. According to a spokesperson for the Ukrainian National Police, “the list of sites is not complete.” Now authorities are asking users to provide information about whether they were deceived by fraudulent exchanges before.

Last Wednesday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission received an additional emergency court order to freeze the assets of Dominic Lacroix, owner of PlexCorps. Lacroix and his partner, Sabrina Paradis-Royer, were accused of violating securities law in respect to the PlexCoin initial coin offering (ICO) conducted by PlexCorps in August last year. The ICO reportedly raised $15 million from “thousands of investors.”

Source: Cointelegraph.com

China’s sports lottery is wittnessing a true boost from the 2018 FIFA World Cup, even without state-approved online sales channels.

According to the official China Sports Lottery website, sales for the week of June 11-17 totaled RMB7.33b (US$1.13b). The results reflect proceeds from the first few days of World Cup action, which kicked off on June 14. The sales total is 126% higher than the same week in 2014, the most recent World Cup year.

Looking at the first three days of World Cup action shows a distinct upward trend. June 14’s sales totaled RMB1.6b, rising to RMB2b on the 15th and then RMB2.3b on the 16th. Each day’s total represents a new record since the sports lottery launched in 2009.

The growth in this year’s World Cup lottery sales is all the more impressive given that sales are now entirely land-based, as the government suspended all official online sales in early 2015. The suspension followed an audit which revealed that many provincial lottery administration centers weren’t reporting all online sales while pocketing the difference.

But nature abhors a vacuum, and Chinese media reported last week that a number of popular online platforms and apps had been doing a brisk business via sports lottery sales. That is, until Beijing publicly reminded these platforms of the 2015 suspension and threatened backsliders with the usual consequences.

However, Chinese media noted that the cessation of this unapproved online lottery offering has led to a surge in informal World Cup betting pools on WeChat groups, with betting information being conveyed via private messages and money changing hands via the network’s infamous ‘red envelope’ feature. Wagers in some of these groups reportedly start at RMB300 ($46) and max out at RMB20k ($3,100).

Of course, every yuan spent via these unofficial online channels is one more yuan that’s not going to the government, which really should be sufficient motivation for Beijing to rethink their 40-months-and-counting online own goal.

Source: CalvinAyre.com

After the Olympic Casino, Belarus’ gambling market is very near to lose another well-known gambling brand.
From this month, the Economic Court of Minsk began proceedings on the bankruptcy case of one of the founders of the Belarusian gambling business – Novo-BR. The company operates the famous local casino network “U Admirala”.

The owners of the “most reliable casino in Belarus”, as the brand is positioned on its website, applied to the court to initiate bankruptcy proceedings. The reasons are related to debts of Novo-BR. According to the Ministry of Taxes and Duties, the Novo-BT failed to pay it’s taxes, and more likely that the casino operator has not paid salaries to its employees.

According to the data of the website of the Unified State Register of Information on Bankruptcy, a protective period was introduced on Novo-BR from June 13. It will be in force until August 1 this year.
“Novo-BR” is one of the oldest operators of the Belarusian gambling business. The company was established in 1993. Currently it owns the casino “U Admirala” and the slot machine halls in the hotels “Orbita” (Minsk) and “Tourist” (Gomel).

According to the Register of Special Permits (Licenses) for Gambling Activities, as of June 1, 2018, 106 companies owned gambling licenses. This year, five companies were granted permits to open casinos, slot machines and bookmaker offices. Establishments will be located in Minsk, Polotsk, Brest, Grodno and on the M-1 motorway in Dubrovno district.

Source: e-playonline.com