Odaily News The one-month football event, the European Cup, will kick off in the early morning of June 15th, Beijing time, and peripheral gambling websites have recently targeted the event and lured Hong Kong people to illegally gamble on football through cryptocurrency betting. According to data from the Asian Horse Racing Federation, the number of gambling websites that currently accept bets on the world's five largest cryptocurrencies, BTC, ETH, Tether, BNB and Solana, has increased from 648 in 2020 to 811 in 2024, an increase of 25%. Twelve of the 20 most popular illegal gambling websites in Hong Kong accept cryptocurrency bets. A spokesman for the Hong Kong Police said that they will continue to adopt a four-pronged strategy, namely prevention, education, intelligence and law enforcement, to combat any form of illegal gambling activities. In response to possible illegal peripheral gambling activities during the European Cup, the police have strengthened intelligence gathering and will take corresponding law enforcement actions in a timely manner. (Sing Tao Global Network)