China’s top ‘professional mistress’ arrested over World Cup gambling
Guo Meimei's arrest has alarmed China’s massive illegal betting industry as record stakes are placed before tomorrow’s World Cup final in Brazil
Careless tweets carrying World Cup predictions led to the arrest of an infamous Chinese “professional mistress,” according to a report by London-based daily The Times on Saturday.
Guo Meimei, 23, is being held with seven other defendants that were arrested in a police raid for breaching the country’s strict anti-gambling laws, the newspaper reported.
Her arrest has alarmed China’s massive illegal betting industry as record stakes are placed before tomorrow’s World Cup final in Brazil.
Meimei’s most recent publicity came when she used microblogging site Weibo - China’s equivalent of Twitter - to publicize her views on the World Cup and the considerable bets she had made in violation of the country’s anti-gambling laws.
Unsavory reputation
Police are reported to have detained her along with closing down eight other illegal gambling rings in the capital of Beijing.
Her arrest comes on the eve of the World Cup final and in a time when new phone apps have permitted hundreds of millions of Chinese smartphone users to place bets on-the-move.
The newspaper said Meimei gained an unsavory reputation through the eyes of the Chinese public after posting ostentatious images of her wealth online, including expensive jewelry, handbags and a Maserati.
She then claimed that she had acquired these goods through her senior management job at the mainland's largest charity organization, the Chinese Red Cross, which subsequently witnessed a massive fall in donations.
It later emerged that she had likely obtained her wealth through being a mistress to Beijing’s elite.
Gambling is thought to channel over $160 billion out of the Chinese economy each year.
The financial section of China’s state news agency argued that the football betting craze was amounting to $160 billion a year offshore, calling it a “severe threat to China’s economic security”.
Asian criminal gangs are assessed to launder more than $140 billion via illegal bookmaking annually.
-
Lebanese singer to cheer for Brazil next World Cup
It is still unknown whether Brazil will qualify for the World Cup’s upcoming round in 2018 Variety -
Covering the World Cup: Q&A with Al Arabiya’s Liliane Tannoury
Liliane Tannoury, Al Arabiya News Channel’s correspondent to Brazil, shares with Inside the Newsroom the latest on Neymar’s health and ... Reports -
Covering the World Cup: Q&A with Al Arabiya’s Liliane Tannoury
Tannoury visits Rio de Janerio’s slums – where great footballers are allegedly born, and digs into the origins of Brazilian football Inside the Newsroom -
Young boy cries over Brazil’s World Cup loss
A video uploaded to YouTube shows a young boy, heavily crying, during the Brazil vs. Germany World Cup match, which resulted in a 7-1 win for Germany. Reports -
Brazil’s president on World Cup loss: ‘My nightmares never got so bad’
President Dilma Rousseff told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that the defeat was an “extremely painful situation” Sports -
Israel’s World Cup complex and neighboring wars
During the last three World Cups, Israel was either preparing or had gone to war with one of its neighbors Middle East