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May 10 (NBD) -- Online card and board game developer Ourgame International Holdings Limited (Ourgame) announced that trading of the company's shares has been halted with effect from 9 am Wednesday.

According to a filing posted on the website of the Ministry of Public Security of China last month, the company organized gambling activities on its online gaming platform and the case was under investigation.

To date, 36 people have been arrested, including the company's executive vice-president, the head of the poker game unit, and the person-in-charge of the department of major clients. In addition, over 65 million yuan (10.2 million U.S. dollars) has been frozen.

Primary investigation found that money involved in "Texas Hold'em Poker", a gambling project of the poker game unit of Ourgame, had added up to 335 million yuan (52.5 million U.S. dollars) since 2010.

The company is to release an announcement which contains inside information in relation to purported illegal activities engaged in by certain employees, said Ourgame.

According to financial results, "Texas Hold'em Poker" reaped a revenue of 172 million yuan (27.0 million U.S. dollars) in 2015, accounting for 22.4 percent of the company's total. Ourgame had stopped disclosing detailed revenue generated by the poker game since 2016. It's noteworthy that the number of monthly active users climed to 822,000 in 2016 from 586.000 in 2015.

This is not the first time that game apps similar to Texas Hold'em Poker were caught participating in gambling.

Last month, China Central Television (CCTV) exposed the operating model of a poker game app called "pukequan" (poker circle). The app can operate up to 100 rooms or gambles simultaneously and over 1000 gambles with 10,000 people joining in every day.

In another investigation reported by CCTV, a person surnamed Liu told the reporter he lost 1.6 million yuan (250,910.0 U.S. dollars), all that he has, on the gaming website of Ourgame within less than 3 years. 

Texas Hold’em Poker is not limited to an online game and Ourgame also hosts offline matches based on the game. 

The media outlet Jiemian reported in April that the market department of the Ministry of China Culture and Tourism requested platforms to remove games like Texas Hold’em Poker and quit operating such games before 1 June. In addition, the authority would no longer accept any new registration or record change.

If the news gets confirmed, Ourgame and other gaming platforms, which depend heavily on poker game like Texas Hold’em Poker for income, will be affected. The influence will be felt across the industry. 

Email: tanyuhan@nbd.com.cn