Will the Live Broadcast Guild be held criminally responsible for gambling in the live broadcast room?

Source: Mankiw Blockchain Law

Professional answers from lawyer Shao Shiwei

If the live broadcast room holds a live lottery, treasure chest opening, For blind box and other probability games, it is difficult for the live streaming guild to use ignorance as a defense. After all, the guild has management responsibilities for the anchors, and the guild's main income is to share the gift income from the live broadcast room with the anchors.

As for the settlement method of commission sharing, we can refer to the relevant contracting rules of Huya, Douyu and other platforms. For example, according to the "Huya Association Signing Rules", Huya Company will share the commission income according to the share ratio agreed between the anchor and the association on the Huya platform. The anchor's live broadcast income will be settled to the association account, and the association will withdraw the money and deduct taxes on its behalf before distributing it to Anchor. According to the "Douyu Guild Entry Agreement", the guild should pay the fees paid to the guild by the Douyu platform to the anchors in accordance with the share ratio agreed between the guild and its anchors.

Therefore, usually the anchor’s income settlement method is first paid by the platform to the public account of the contracted guild, and then the guild withholds taxes and pays it to the anchor.

The composition and calculation method of commission include gifts, props, various activities, advertising revenue, etc. When the guild makes settlements according to the ratio agreed with the anchor, it must be clear about the composition of each commission of the anchor. The small and broad probability game play does not require too much brainpower from the rule makers, and naturally has huge traffic. Traffic brings users, and more users brings more revenue. Obvious abnormalities in the flow of water will also force the guild to "have to" know what the anchor in the live broadcast room is doing.

So what is it like in judicial practice?

In a judgment issued by the Tianhe District Court of Guangdong in September 2020, Zhao signed a cooperation agreement with a certain company in the name of the company. Zhao established a "Riddle Guild" on the NetEase CC voice platform, and Zhao served as the guild. Responsible person, and recruited multiple anchors to organize gambling in the interactive game room, and launched interactive activities such as video interaction and card interaction to attract players to bet virtual coins. The system will then automatically settle wins and losses based on the results of the guessing. Both the guild and the anchors will Commissions can be made from the virtual coins that players place bets or rewards according to an agreed ratio, and will be settled in RMB by NetEase's backend as a way to draw money. After auditing, the gambling capital was approximately 22 million yuan. As the person in charge of the guild, Zhao was convicted of opening a casino and was sentenced to four years and six months in prison. Also sentenced were the guild's finances, anchors, and personnel involved in the realization of virtual currency.

In October 2022, Ningyang police reported a case in which voice live game APPs such as the "XX Planet" APP used the guise of live broadcast rewards to embed "opening treasure boxes" and "blowing bubbles" ", "Star Trek" and other gambling games, the police destroyed 2 gambling APP platforms and 3 gambling live streaming guilds, arresting the backstage boss, operation, technology, guild leader and anchor in one fell swoop.

It can be seen that the live broadcast room involves gambling, and the risk of the live broadcast guild is obviously higher than that of the platform. According to the provisions of my country's criminal law, gambling amounts of more than 300,000 yuan meet the seriousness of the crime of opening a casino and may be sentenced to 5-10 years in prison. For live broadcast rooms with huge traffic, the amount of 300,000 may be reached in just one live broadcast event.