"As long as you play 9 yuan and 9 once, you may earn 2,888 yuan, a nearly 300-fold return!" Zhang Peng was talking about the reward game of a live broadcast platform. For high rewards, he once spent more than three months in the game , "swipe" off his own 2 million yuan.
Zhang Peng said that the rules of these games are very simple. Taking the game "God of Wealth" as an example, after players spend 9.9 yuan to buy a "Little God of Wealth" in the live broadcast room, the system will automatically give a reward of varying sizes. The reward is precisely to win high rewards. Like him, many players are deeply involved in the "God of Wealth Bag", "Guess" and "Turntable" games on the live broadcast platform. Some people lose hundreds of thousands of yuan a day, while others are just a few months old. Lost more than three million in time.
A reporter from the Beijing News downloaded this live broadcast platform and found that these games are not open to all users. Only after users recharge and consume a certain amount of money, and the level reaches level 20 or above, users can participate in these lottery quiz games and become players.
On this platform, there are also many "ghost live rooms" without anchors, relying on extra rewards to attract players to get together to buy gifts.
There is another group active behind the live broadcast platform and players - the "consignee".
They assume the function of monetizing players. Once players win virtual gifts in the game, as long as they swipe into the live broadcast room designated by the "consignee", they can be converted into RMB in proportion. Shared by the platform and the anchor.
In the eyes of Zhang Peng and other players, the existence of the "consignee" makes the live broadcast platform have the "cash out" function in disguise.
Fu Jian, a lawyer from Henan Yulong Law Firm, believes that the live broadcast platform conducts paid lottery and paid lottery draws with rewards as the threshold, and follows the mechanism of being small and broad, which is exactly the same as gambling.
As early as June 2020, when the Cyberspace Administration of China, together with relevant departments, conducted a comprehensive inspection of the content ecology of 31 major domestic online live broadcast platforms, it pointed out that the 10 online live broadcast platforms, including this platform, except for those who spread vulgar content. In addition to the problem, some are suspected of organizing online gambling by means of "lottery draw", "quiz" and "rebate".
Addicted to the bonus game and spent two million in three months
"If you win, you want to win, if you lose, you want to get your money back, but you can't stop, and you lose 80,000 a day at the most." From the initial single bet of 9.9 yuan, to the virtual currency that was recharged as a "number" after getting caught in it, Zhang Peng of Beijing lost 2 million in the "game" of the live broadcast platform.
Zhang Peng often watched the live broadcast to pass the time, "I used to reward the anchor, and the maximum amount was a few hundred yuan." While watching the live broadcast, Zhang Peng accidentally heard that someone played a game and won the grand prize, so he also found that game and played it.
The game he first came into contact with was the “God of Wealth Bag” game. He could participate as long as he gave a reward and a gift. “Sending a gift is equivalent to placing a bet on a lottery. The prizes are shells, and the number is different.” Zhang Peng explained. Said that shells and pepper beans are the virtual currency of the live broadcast platform, and the two are equivalent, 1 yuan can buy 10 shells or 10 pepper beans, "For example, you use 999 shells to buy a God of Wealth bag, click send after , the reward reward issued by the system may be up to 280,000 shells, which is 28,000 yuan."
After playing the "God of Wealth Bag" game for a while, Zhang Peng played the "turntable" game in the live broadcast room. It is divided into ordinary gift turntable and super turntable. Each turn of the gift turntable requires 100 pepper beans, and each rotation of the super turntable requires 100 pepper beans. Consume 1000 pepper beans at a time, and the prizes are 6 to 8 kinds of gifts. After the rotation stops, the gift pointed by the pointer is the player's betting income. If you bet 100 yuan once, you may get a gift worth 8888 yuan.
Zhang Peng has been fascinated by these two games since then. For a period of time after that, although there were wins and losses, Zhang Peng found that he lost more and more money. The more you lose." Zhang Peng showed his Alipay payment record to the Beijing News reporter. According to rough statistics, from March to July 2021, for more than three months, he spent a total of 2.02 million yuan on the live broadcast platform. Buying virtual currency, there is little left to lose at the moment.
There is also Tian Shuai from Zhengzhou who has the same experience. In just a few months, he lost 400,000 yuan through the game in this live broadcast room.
Tian Shuai told the Beijing News reporter that he had just started working after graduating from college and had limited savings. Most of the money he lost came from loans. "Only tens of thousands of them were saved by himself, and the rest were loans."
You can only enter after recharging and rewarding thousands of yuan
The social live broadcast platform involved was launched in June 2015. According to its announcement, as of August 31, 2021, the live broadcast platform had a cumulative number of 200 million registered users, with more than 200,000 active anchors every month.
Open the live broadcast software, the first thing that catches your eye is a large number of beautiful anchors, who earn virtual gifts from users by singing and dancing. Such live broadcasts are usually called show live broadcasts.
Several people in the live broadcast industry told the Beijing News reporter that for the live broadcast of the show, the reward of virtual gifts not only feeds the anchor, but is also the main source of income for the live broadcast platform.
In Zhang Peng's opinion, the game "God of Fortune Bag" he played looks like a reward on the surface, but it is not. "Users first recharge, use virtual currency to buy gifts, and then click 'send'. Same."
"Ordinary rewards, users send gifts, streamers receive gifts, other than that, users have no additional benefits, while for 'Fortune Bags', users will receive rewards after sending gifts. There are more or less rewards. It's like placing a bet."
Zhang Peng explained that the difference between the two is that the gifts are different. If you choose to send a gift with a "lucky" corner mark, you can participate in the "God of Wealth Bag" game. A gift without this mark is an ordinary reward.
New users only have ordinary rewards, and there will not be any gifts with a "lucky" icon in the gift column. "You can only participate in the reward game if you recharge the reward and reach level 20."
Zhang Peng said that it usually costs at least 25,000 pepper beans to rise to level 20. "You spend money on this platform, and the platform recognizes you as a player before you can see these games." Why does the platform set such a threshold? Zhang Peng sees Come, it is convenient for these games to hide and avoid the inspection of the regulatory authorities.
After the reporter reached level 20, he spent 99 virtual coins to buy a gift called "Little God of Fortune". Soon after it was sent, a message from the platform's official platform was displayed on the screen, which read: "You have opened 23 shells in Little God of Fortune. !" Pepper beans and shells are equivalent, which means that this time, the reporter lost 76 shells.
Afterwards, the reporter sent out a number of "Little God of Wealth" in succession, with 76 shells, 126 shells and 21 shells respectively.
This means that despite winning and losing, the reporter actually lost a total of 150 shells, equivalent to 15 yuan, after betting four times in a row.
Zhang Peng told reporters that his 2 million yuan was lost in this way, "Sometimes the 999 Sichuan pepper bean bags of the God of Wealth are 'sent' continuously, and hundreds of them can be sent out in one minute, and only 10,000 yuan can be sent. Gone."
The gameplay of this game is introduced, the user sends a small God of Fortune (99 beans), the range of rewards is 1 to 28888 shells, the golden God of Fortune (499 beans) is sent, the range of rewards is 1 to 148888 shells, and the God of Fortune bag is sent (999 Beans), the range of rewards is 1 to 288888 shells, which means that users spend 99.9 yuan to bet once, and can get a maximum return of 28,000 yuan, of course, it may be 0.1 yuan in return.
The gameplay introduction also stated that only when the number of shells opened by the user is large, the anchor can get a 1%-3% commission. In the eyes of Zhang Peng and other players, this fully shows that the virtual coins bet by the players are all flowing to After entering the platform, "I feel that the background system of the platform is the same as that of the Zhuangzhuang. The money bet is eaten by the system, and the rewards are also given by the system."
The ghost live room is exclusively for players to win "grand prizes"
In addition to the high rewards as a temptation, a reporter from the Beijing News observed in the live broadcast room for many days and found that whenever a player wins the grand prize by playing "Fortune Bag" or "Lucky Wheel", all the live broadcast rooms of this live broadcast platform will jump out of scrolling subtitles. The content is that a user has won multiple prizes in a game in a live broadcast room, which is called "floating screen" by players.
Tian Shuai told reporters that as soon as the "floating screen" appears, it means that someone has won the big prize. The "floating screen" undoubtedly has a great stimulating effect on other players, and other players can directly click the subtitle of the "floating screen". Jump to the live broadcast room where the prize is awarded.
At 10:00 pm on December 9, 2021, the reporter clicked on a "floating screen" winning subtitle in the live broadcast room, and soon jumped to a live broadcast room called "Little Fish".
This live broadcast room is very different from other live broadcast rooms. It does not have a host. There is only a static landscape picture with background music in the live broadcast room. There is no anchor, but the live broadcast room is very lively. The subtitles scrolling from top to bottom in the lower left corner are swiped by the message of giving gifts.
"x1, x2, x3...x29, x30..." A user sent 114 "Golden God of Fortune" one after another. On the live broadcast platform, one "Golden God of Fortune" is priced at 499 pepper beans or shells, which is equivalent to RMB 49.9 , which means that in just a few seconds, the value of the virtual gift sent by this user is as high as more than 5,000 yuan.
Another user, followed by sending 30 little gods of wealth.
The reporter made a rough count. Within an hour, multiple users sent gifts worth more than 100,000 yuan in this live broadcast room.
The Beijing News reporters entered the live broadcast room at different times during the day. The situation is always the same. In the seemingly lively live broadcast room, no one speaks, only the sound of background music, but the screen shows that there are always users sending out Gifts, 24 hours a day, for months on end.
Tian Shuai said that these players are playing the game of "God of Wealth Bag", which is called giving gifts, but it is actually betting. "Ghost live broadcast rooms" like this are called "gambling halls" by players. On this platform It is not uncommon on the Internet. By clicking on the winning subtitles of the "floating screen", the reporter found more than ten similar "ghost live broadcast rooms".
Why do users get together to play games in these "ghost live rooms" without anchors? Zhang Peng revealed that the reason is because of extra rewards. "These casinos will return cash, such as 2,000 yuan for the middle, and they will reward you with an additional 200 yuan." Reporter Private message asked the "gambling hall", and the other party really sent a reward message: "Fortune bag with more than 10,000 beans will be rewarded with 50 yuan, and fortune bags with more than 20,000 beans will be rewarded with 200 yuan..."
Incentive gifts can be monetized through the "Receiver"
The Beijing News reporter learned from the investigation that the live broadcast of the show today is different from the early days, and the role of "family" is derived. The "family" is equivalent to a brokerage company. A "family" will sign contracts ranging from dozens to hundreds of anchors.
"Family" settles on the live broadcast platform as a whole. After receiving virtual gifts from users, the anchor often settles with the live broadcast platform on a monthly basis with the "family" as the unit.
The same is true for this live broadcast platform, which directly signs contracts with large and small "families" to agree on the proportion of virtual gifts.
For example, a "family" receives a gift of 1 million shells a month. When certain tasks are completed, the platform will withhold 17%, and the maximum share for the "family" is 83%, which means that 1 million shells, "Family" can receive 83,000 yuan.
A copy of the platform's entry policy obtained by the reporter shows that the proportion of the "family" is linked to the monthly turnover task. , the share ratio is 75%, the monthly turnover is 1 million yuan, and the share ratio is 80%. In addition, the platform has also formulated monthly turnover growth tasks and effective anchor tasks for the "family". After completing these monthly tasks, the "family" can get 3 points , which means that the “family” can get the highest share of 83% only after completing all the tasks set by the platform.
Zhao Ping, who once established a "family" and settled in this live broadcast platform, told reporters that for the "family", in order to obtain a higher share, it is necessary to increase the monthly flow, and the so-called monthly flow is the amount received by the anchors of the "family". The value of the virtual gift, the monthly turnover of 1 million yuan means that the gift received by the anchor is worth 1 million yuan.
According to a person in the live broadcast industry, under normal circumstances, if the "family" wants to increase the monthly flow, the only way is to let the anchors increase their efforts to attract users to give rewards. Of course, this requires users to be willing to give rewards for free.
However, this also leaves a loophole, that is, in order to obtain virtual gifts in the hands of users, the anchor can also pay for 75%-78% of the value of the gift.
Both paid gifts and virtual gifts obtained by users voluntarily and freely can be counted as "family" achievements, and are settled with the platform on a monthly basis. In this way, the virtual gifts obtained by users from playing games are passed through the "family" in this way. Realized.
After a period of development, some "families" will send special personnel to be responsible for paying gifts, and some intermediaries will participate in the purchase of gifts from users for free on behalf of "families". These people are called "recipients" on the live broadcast platform.
Zhao Ping told reporters, "Those 'gambling halls' give extra rewards, not only to attract users, but they also undertake the function of monetization. There are consignees behind the 'gambling halls', and gifts or shells can be won. Realize through the consignee.”
On January 5th, a reporter from the Beijing News sent a private message to a consignee of a "gambling hall", expressing that he hoped to exchange the shells in the account into RMB, and soon the other party also sent a WeChat account for the reporter to add it on WeChat. The other party said that it can be exchanged by swiping gifts, and the exchange rate is 76%, which means that 10,000 shells can only be exchanged for RMB worth 7,600 shells. He then sent the reporter a live broadcast room number. According to the other party's request, the reporter used 25656 shells Bought some virtual gifts to send them in his designated live broadcast room, and sent him the screenshots. About 20 minutes later, the intermediary transferred 1,949 yuan to the reporter on WeChat, which was exactly 76% of what he had agreed with the reporter before. exchange rate.
On January 15, a reporter from the Beijing News and Zhao Peng met a "consignee" Zhu Yun in Beijing. Most of the time, Zhao Peng sold the virtual gifts he won to Zhu Yun and realized it through him.
Zhu Yun said that he was also a player and was brought into the industry by a senior. Later, he received the goods independently. At the same time, he also developed some downlines to help him receive the goods. "I received a gift of 24 million yuan last month and acquired it for more than two years. The turnover of virtual gifts exceeded 150 million yuan."
Zhu Yun said that there are several "families" of anchors who work with him. These "families" have monthly running water tasks. The higher the running water, the higher the commission. If the goods are available, let the players swipe the gift into the live broadcast room under the 'family'."
"The platform can be listed, one depends on the players to gamble, and the other depends on us to receive." In Zhu Yun's view, the consignee is indispensable. Without them, the platform's gambling game cannot operate normally. This is also obtained by Zhang Peng. "Without the consignee, if you don't cash me out, I will definitely not play those gambling games."
The platform claims to crack down on acquisition reports, but it sinks into the sea
A reporter from the Beijing News noticed that this live broadcast platform clearly stipulates that it is forbidden to buy and sell virtual gifts. How did the consignee avoid the supervision of the platform by buying and selling such a large number of gifts?
"It's not allowed on the surface, but one eye is closed behind the scenes. After all, it has contributed so much water to them." Zhu Yun introduced that in addition to him, the platform also has several other large consignees active. The amount of goods received every month exceeds him, and the platform officials know everything about their gift-selling business. "The largest "family" has thousands of anchors, and they also buy gifts from players for a fee, and the amount of goods received in a month is about the same. Forty to fifty million yuan."
Zhu Yun revealed that in addition to players, some people who tried to launder money sold gifts to them. "The origin of some of the recharged money is unknown, for example, some people are trying to transfer fraudulent funds." Zhu Yun said that the process of monetizing them for players , that is, a process of laundering money. The money is recharged, and the gift is swiped out. They directly transfer the money back through WeChat, which is lower than the handling fee of the underground bank.
On an online complaint platform, a reporter from the Beijing News retrieved a large amount of complaint information about the recharge of the live broadcast platform. Many netizens reported that when they purchased goods online, they were tricked by fraudsters and recharged money to the platform. They found the platform and negotiated to get it back. Defrauded funds are generally unsuccessful for various reasons.
In the gameplay introduction of the game, the live broadcast platform claimed that offline transactions of the rewards obtained are prohibited, and the platform will severely crack down on third-party behaviors such as the acquisition of bean merchants (currency merchants).
On January 17, a reporter from the Beijing News reported to the platform customer service the previous situation of buying and selling gifts through the "consignee" and successfully realizing it. Afterwards, according to the request of the other party, the reporter provided a screenshot of the transaction and many other evidences. An online customer service staff said that he would Feedback the situation to the platform, the reporter asked when to reply to the processing result, and the customer service only replied to keep the reporter concerned, but as of press time, the reporter never received feedback from the customer service, and the reporter reported that the live broadcast room that can buy and sell virtual gifts is still running normally. The consignee is still continuing to receive the goods and has not been affected by the complaint in the slightest.
"The live broadcast platform conducts paid lottery and paid lottery draws with rewards as the threshold. It follows a small and broad-based mechanism, which is exactly the same as gambling behavior." Fu Jian, a lawyer at Henan Yulong Law Firm, said that according to my country's "Criminal Law", profit is the basis of profit. Whoever gathers a crowd to gamble or uses gambling as a business shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, criminal detention or public surveillance, and shall also be fined.
Whoever opens a casino shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than five years, criminal detention or public surveillance.
"The live broadcast platform attracts ordinary users to participate and attracts the attention of netizens by means of live broadcast floating screens, in order to achieve the purpose of gathering people and accumulating money, which is in line with the objective requirements of gambling." Lawyer Fu Jian believes that the determination of gambling behavior needs to have the purpose of profit, and whether it can be realized is a question of whether it can be realized. To identify the important conditions for gambling, players of this live broadcast platform can realize cash through intermediaries. Such a relatively concealed third-party realization channel brings great difficulty to the discovery of gambling behavior and the identification of gambling crimes.
Attorney Cao Xiabo of Beijing Jincheng Tongda (Hefei) Law Firm believes that whether virtual property can be realized through a third party does not affect the determination of gambling, "Even though the live broadcast platform says it is forbidden to trade the rewards obtained offline, but on the platform It is an objective fact that the virtual property of the company can be exchanged with RMB, and this channel may also be used for money laundering.” Lawyer Cao Xiabo said that due to the extremely imperfect regulations on corporate compliance in our country’s laws, some companies deliberately played side balls, resulting in illegal activities. It is imperative to strengthen the relevant legislation to commit crimes.
(Zhang Peng, Tian Shuai, Zhao Ping, and Zhu Yun are all pseudonyms in the text)
Beijing News reporter Han Futao intern Wang Xiaochen