Call to block influencers promoting illegal betting

Authorities are being urged to block the social media of internet celebrities who promote illegal bookmaking or to amend laws requiring them to declare paid or sponsored content in order to combat illegal gambling in Hong Kong.

This comes as a growing number of Asian female internet celebrities are promoting illegal gambling sites, some of which disguise themselves as online video games.

Lawmaker Edward Leung Hei from the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong agreed that the city could block illegal gambling websites similar to the blockage of the JPEX site.

"Police could require local internet service providers to block the gambling sites, as well as the social media of online influencers who promote the sites," Leung said.

"Some US states have adopted similar measures as local authorities could require internet service providers to block illegal sites."

Leung said authorities could include a clause on disclosure obligations in the Trade Descriptions Ordinance, forcing online key opinion leaders to disclose whether they receive sponsorships for their recommendations to protect consumers.

For instance, on Instagram, is a young teenage Taiwanese girl, who has around 9,000 fans and 6,000 followers.

In her recent story reel she posted a sexy video of her in a bathtub saying she is "merrily going to bed" after winning NT$3,425 (HK$850), with links to an illegal car racing betting website.

Similarly, another internet celebrity promoted an illegal betting website while wearing a tube top, with the name of the illegal betting website printed on her chest and displaying the homepage of the website on her phone.

Malaysian influencers are also into promoting illegal betting sites, using free live streaming of matches, horse racing tips and favorable odds to attract people.

In her posting, she mentions that the platform welcomes bets with cryptocurrency.

It is understood that illegal bookmakers invite multiple influencers to cooperate with them, so as to increase their chance of reaching their potential customers and drawing in as many customers as they can.

"Illegal bookmakers usually use a profit sharing model to reward internet celebrities," one source said.

"The illegal bookmakers will give out a commission of around 2 to 5 percent of the deposit by customers they introduce, with the percentage depending on the popularity of the internet celebrity.

"Another way would be paying the internet celebrities by advertisement, which is usually HK$3,000 per social media posting. Some would even offer a monthly base salary of HK$30,000 to get them to promote on their platforms."

According to Asian Racing Federation, the promotion of illegal betting websites through social media has proliferated.

In Hong Kong, illegal bookmakers have seen significant success by promoting their platforms on social media.

Since the second half of last year, the online traffic volume of the top 200 most popular betting websites has increased by 160 percent, with around 12 percent of the overall traffic generated by social media hyperlinks.

Hyperlinks are around six times higher than the average value of 2 percent around the globe, according to the Asian Racing Federation.

Police are carrying out online patrols from time to time to look out for illegal gambling activities and further curtail illegal activities online.

Police said the website of troubled cryptocurrency trading platform JPEX has been blocked to prevent people from being scammed.

michael.shum@singtaonewscorp.com