Search results altered, redirected to gambling websites

China's biggest search engine Baidu announced on Monday that it had reported a number of companies to the police for tampering with search results and redirecting users to illegal gambling websites.

For the past two months, anyone who input the keywords "Grand Lisboa" into Baidu's search engine between 10pm and 9am would receive a list of paid-for results, marked as commercial promotions, that all linked to the gambling sites, Beijing News reported on Monday.

Grand Lisboa is the name of a hotel and casino in Macao.

In response to the report, Baidu said an investigation had revealed that some companies were replacing original promotional content with links to gambling sites in the middle of the night.

It said these activities had been reported to the police and admitted that there were flaws in its anti-cheating system, designed to prevent people changing approved promotional content.

To bypass China's Cyberspace Administration, the gambling websites were registered with Baidu using information stolen from legitimate companies, according to the report. Eight of the sites were registered under the name of a car parts dealer in Central China's Henan province.

An employee at the dealer told Beijing News that they had no idea the company's registration information had been used for any sort of online promotion.

Baidu said they had actively monitored one of the car parts company's commercial promotions, which was launched at 11 pm on June 25 and had been removed by 6 am the next day.

Gambling is illegal in the Chinese mainland. Chinese authorities have stepped up efforts to crack down on online gambling in recent years. According to the criminal law, gambling activities for the purpose of revenue generation are punishable by up to three years in prison and fines. Those who run casinos can be given a maximum of 10 years in prison plus fines.