China police arrest man on suspicion of opening casino; local media link case to DouYu (updated)

HUYA

22/11/2023 05:58

(Adds background on Douyu)
       BEIJING, Nov 22 (Reuters) - 
    Police in the southwestern city of Chengdu said they had
arrested a 39-year-old man surnamed Chen on suspicion of opening
a casino, according to a notice on Wednesday.
    The person, who it described as Chen Moujie, has been
arrested in accordance with the law and a further investigation
is ongoing, the notice said. The term "mou" is one China often
uses to partially anonymise the name of suspects.
        Streaming platform operator DouYu International  DOYU.O 
    on Tuesday said
     that its chief executive, Chen Shaojie, had been arrested
by Chengdu police on Nov. 16 but that it had not received any
official notice of investigation against Chen or a reason for
arrest. Shares in DouYu fell 6% after the statement. The company
did not immediately respond to a request for comment on
Wednesday.
  
        State media outlet Xinhua and local outlet wallstreetcn
both reported that the police statement referred to the arrest
of Chen Shaojie. 
  
        The Chengdu police declined to comment beyond their
statement. 
  
        Chen founded DouYu in 2014 and grew the company into
China's leading video game streaming platform in China by number
of users.
  
        In 2020, Tencent proposed a merger between DouYu and its
rival Huya, which Tencent also controls, to form a $10 billion
streaming behemoth to rival Amazon's Twitch in the United States
before the deal was blocked on antitrust grounds in 2021.
  
        Gambling is illegal in China and authorities have in
recent years been cracking down harder on such activities,
especially those 
    happening online
    . 
  
        In May 2023, China's cyberspace watchdog launched an
on-site inspection of DouYu, stationing a group at the company
for a month to supervise the platform as it addressed problems,
including pornography content. Authorities have in the past also
accused DouYu of hosting gambling content. 
  
        
  

 (Reporting by Beijing newsroom and Brenda Goh; Editing by
Jacqueline Wong and Gerry Doyle)
 ((bernard.orr@thomsonreuters.com))