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Cybersecurity company Infoblox is tracking more than 1.7 million domains connected to Chinese-language illegal casino activity.
The company said the internet addresses form part of a fast-moving online ecosystem aimed mainly at mainland Chinese players and money-laundering groups.
The 1.7 million figure does not mean there are 1.7 million separate illegal gambling operators. It also does not necessarily mean there are the same number of different websites.
According to Infoblox, the networks behind these operations continually create and rotate domain names. When 1 address is blocked, operators can redirect users to replacement addresses from their existing pools.
This makes it difficult to determine the full number of operators involved. It also means that blocking a single website address may have limited the effect on the wider network.
Venetian Macao Branding Misused
Infoblox identified 1 recently active domain that used the Venetian Macao name alongside casino and gambling-style video games.
The cybersecurity company said there was no evidence that the site had any connection to the genuine Venetian Macao resort.
Infoblox noted that major casino brands appearing on suspicious websites are unlikely to be connected to those operations. Instead, the legitimate companies are generally being impersonated and become victims of brand misuse.
The use of a recognized casino name may create the impression that a site is connected to an established operator. However, Infoblox’s research indicated that the Venetian Macao branding seen on the recently active domain was being used without evidence of a genuine relationship with the resort.
The report did not name other casino brands that may have appeared on the tracked sites.
3 Types of Suspicious Sites
Infoblox released its report on September 15 and classified suspicious casino websites into 3 categories.
The first category includes platforms that facilitate illegal gambling and money laundering. The figure of more than 1.7 million tracked domains applies specifically to this group.
The second category includes fake casinos created to prevent customers from withdrawing funds. These sites may present themselves as gambling platforms, but are designed to block users from accessing their money.
The third category involves casino-themed decoy pages used to hide cyberespionage infrastructure.
The report distinguishes between these categories because the sites may serve different purposes. Some are linked to illegal gambling and the movement of illicit funds, while others are designed to defraud customers or conceal technical operations.
The 1.7 million figure covers only the platforms connected to illegal gambling and money laundering. It does not include the fake casino sites or the casino-themed decoy pages identified in the broader research.
Domains Linked to Few Networks
Although the number of tracked domains is large, Infoblox said the activity is concentrated around a small number of technical networks.
2 networks supporting these operations accounted for around 81% of the tracked Chinese-language casino domains.
The 4 largest clusters represented about 99.5% of the total. This indicates that most of the 1.7 million internet addresses are linked to a relatively small group of actors.
The concentration of domains within several large technical clusters may help explain how these networks maintain such a large number of replacement addresses.
Rather than relying on a limited number of websites, operators can maintain extensive pools of domain names and move users between them when authorities or internet service providers restrict access.
Source: Asia Gaming Brief
