Cybersecurity company Infoblox is tracking more than 1.7 million domains linked to Chinese-language illegal casinos, with its research showing one site using Venetian Macao branding without evidence of a connection to the genuine resort.
Infoblox said the domains — the internet addresses used to reach websites — form part of a fast-moving ecosystem catering mainly to mainland Chinese players and money-laundering groups. The figure does not represent 1.7 million separate operators or even necessarily the same number of distinct websites, as the networks continually create and rotate addresses when others are blocked.
The September 15th report classified suspicious casino sites into three categories: platforms facilitating illegal gambling and money laundering, fake casinos designed to prevent customers from withdrawing funds, and casino-themed decoy pages used to conceal cyberespionage infrastructure. The 1.7 million figure applies specifically to the first category.
One recently active domain displayed the Venetian Macao name alongside casino and gambling-style video games. Infoblox said major casino brands appearing on such sites are unlikely to have any association with them and are generally being impersonated, making the legitimate companies victims of brand misuse.
Two technical networks supporting these operations accounted for about 81 percent of the tracked Chinese-language casino domains. The four largest clusters represented roughly 99.5 percent, indicating that the huge number of addresses is concentrated around a small group of actors.
Infoblox said blocking individual domains has limited effect because operators maintain large pools of replacement addresses and can redirect users when a site is restricted.
