Douyin Flags 417,000 Accounts in World Cup Gambling Sweep as Police Arrest 162 Suspects

Key Points

• Records from Douyin show 417,000 accounts flagged for gambling links during a single month. Permanent removal applied to over 90,000 accounts associated with illegal sports betting.
• Xiaohongshu acted in its World Cup campaign by suspending more than 40,000 accounts. Platform teams deleted 65,000 posts and eliminated 450,000 comments at the same time.
• Authorities launched police raids on betting networks in Jiande, Jiangyou, Guangxi and Xi’an. The operations resulted in arrests of multiple suspects and the seizure of hundreds of thousands of yuan.

Four hundred and seventeen thousand accounts. In a single month. This is the extent to which the Douyin clean-up effort in tackling illegal gambling content ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup has reached; an estimate that goes some way toward demonstrating the zeal with which betting syndicates have jumped at the opportunity.

The Chinese version of TikTok, ByteDance’s Douyin, has now revealed that it has identified about 417,000 gambling-related accounts in the last month, according to the Chinese national broadcaster CNR. Over 90,000 of these accounts have been suspended permanently for posting content on illegal sports betting.

How Syndicates Tried to Stay Hidden?

The accounts were not running obvious betting ads. Douyin states that the criminal groups used QR codes hidden within their videos, used codes in their messages, and used seemingly normal posts which linked to the gambling websites located offshore and bypassed automated content filtering systems. Livestreams of disguised nature were used too – apparently showing football matches at first but then linking to the unauthorised platforms.

The spokesman for Douyin explained that the groups used “subtle ways” to promote the third-party gambling applications through inserting QR codes that would redirect viewers to the unlawful sports betting websites. He said that all gambling practices along with “related promotional activities” are against the terms of use of the Douyin platform and encouraged users to refrain “from publishing or disseminating any illegal gambling-related content.”

Along with suspending accounts, Douyin removed thousands of gambling livestreams in the middle of live streams by finding any hints related to gambling in those streams. Douyin reports having closed approximately 4,000 livestreams this way.

Enforcement Escalated from April

The numbers did not appear suddenly. Douyin first launched its gambling crackdown in April, when it began removing more than 10,000 accounts per day. Most of those early removals involved accounts using “cryptic messages” and well-known euphemisms designed to slip past anti-gambling algorithms. The World Cup intensified what was already an active enforcement campaign.

By last month, Douyin reported that information shared through its investigations had helped police arrest 162 suspects linked to illegal gambling and other online crimes. That number, more than the platform’s account totals, puts a human dimension on the scale of coordinated criminal activity running through short-video content.

Xiaohongshu Runs a Parallel Clean-Up

Douyin is not working alone. Xiaohongshu launched an enforcement operation at scale at the start of June, when it suspended more than 40,000 accounts engaged in gambling-related activities. In addition to that, more than 65,000 posts and over 450,000 comments related to unregulated betting were taken down, and several cases were handed over to the police.

These simultaneous measures on different platforms indicate the coordinated effort of the Chinese authorities in addressing these issues rather than mere corporate compliance. Sports events have always been the triggers for illegal activity, and syndicates rely on the influx of the tournament audience.

Raids Across Four Provinces

Social media clean-ups are one front. On the ground, police have moved against the networks directly. Another large-scale operation was conducted in Jiande in the province of Hangzhou, where the police dismantled an international online betting syndicate after investigating the group for several weeks with the use of digital forensics tools. Eight members of the group were arrested, and the police confiscated more than $148,000 in illegal gambling money. The group allegedly offered football bettors better chances of winning at their expense, and then redirected them to an unauthorised website. Three suspected organisers are currently held in pre-trial detention.

In another case, four individuals have been arrested in Jiangyou city in the province of Sichuan. This group of people was operating an illegal website which offered betting services related to the World Cup. The police managed to confiscate more than 300,000 yuan ($44,000) from the criminals, who were found to be using chat groups on WeChat to promote their betting websites by constantly changing their bank account numbers.

Why the World Cup Changes the Risk Environment?

Gambling is largely prohibited across mainland China. The state-run China Sports Lottery remains the country’s primary legal betting channel, established in 1994, and its football products generated 6.87 billion yuan ($956 million) in a single week between 8 and 14 June, a 97 per cent jump on the previous week. When legal volumes jump that sharply, illegal volumes move alongside them.

Total state lottery sales reached 627.97 billion yuan (around $87.3 billion) in 2025, with sports lottery products accounting for 419.39 billion yuan of that. The World Cup is expected to push this year’s figures higher, but it also creates the demand syndicates feed off: millions of people interested in football betting, a large portion of whom will find no legal option beyond the state lottery, and offshore platforms advertising better odds.

Platforms faced similar challenges years ago and the situation repeats itself now. WeChat moved quickly during the 2018 World Cup in Russia to close 50000 accounts. Staff deleted more than 8000 group chats connected to gambling activities within weeks after the tournament began. One operation based in Beijing faced closure that same year. Reports indicate the group managed 320 million yuan which equals 48 million dollars in bets.

Expert Analysis

The numbers Douyin has published are striking, but the more telling figure is 162 arrests. Account bans are easily replaced; a criminal suspect detained is a network disrupted. China’s enforcement model during major sporting events has shifted toward platform-police coordination rather than platform action alone, and the 2026 World Cup campaign shows that shift at scale. What remains to be tested is whether removing 417,000 accounts permanently changes the risk calculation for syndicates, or whether the volume of removals simply reflects how fast new accounts are being created to replace banned ones. The raids in Jiande and Jiangyou suggest investigators are pursuing the organisers, not just the channels. That is where the pressure needs to land.