Author: Shao Shihui Lawyer Team

Little Wang is a programmer at a large company. In recent years, he has wanted to break through his career bottleneck and find new career possibilities, and has begun to consider transitioning to Web3. After communicating with headhunters and asking friends in the industry for referrals, Little Wang has received several job offers in Web3, with JD (job descriptions) that roughly state:

Design and develop core contracts for prediction markets (AMM, liquidity pools, settlements, arbitration models);

Design and develop decentralized applications for gambling games;

Urgently hiring Java engineers, with strict requirements for perpetual contracts, matching systems experience, etc.

Faced with terms like “perpetual contracts, on-chain gambling, prediction markets,” Little Wang feels a bit confused but also senses something is off: the compensation offered by the headhunter is quite good, significantly higher than his current income, and most importantly, it allows for remote work, a lifestyle Little Wang has always dreamed of.

However, “Is there any risk for this kind of work in China? But even if the project is risky, what does it matter? I'm just a technician; I shouldn't be implicated if something goes wrong, right?” ... This conflicting mindset has left him in a continuous state of dilemma.

In his daily case handling and consultations, Lawyer Shao has found that there are quite a few job seekers like Little Wang who share the same thoughts: drawn by high salaries and remote work while also worrying about crossing legal red lines. So, how should programmers choose job positions when transitioning to Web3? How can they “avoid pitfalls” to stay away from legal risks?

This article will summarize the types of platforms often associated with gambling from the perspective of job seekers transitioning to Web3, helping you achieve “instant recognition.” You can compare job descriptions, project white papers, and official website introductions to self-check whether the job you are entering is a gambling-related Web3 project, to avoid inadvertently working for a “casino.”

1. Web3 Gaming Platforms: The Hidden Packaging of On-Chain Gambling

Many Web3 job seekers initially encountering this type of position often see JD descriptions that are very appealing:

Decentralized blockchain games, on-chain fair gambling, smart contracts with automatic settlement, USDT instant settlement; at first glance, it looks like a cutting-edge Web3 game (GameFi) or innovative project.

However, if you peel away these buzzwords and focus on how money flows, you'll find that the essence of the business is not complicated: Users use USDT, ETH, and other virtual currencies as chips, select game options (dice, roulette, lottery, sports betting, etc.) on the front end, and then write transactions into smart contracts using Web3 libraries; once the contract receives funds, it determines the outcome based on preset random number + odds rules, pays winnings to the winners from the liquidity pool, while the platform and house take a commission.

The on-chain transparency only applies to the process; its essence is still organizing a non-specific large number of people to bet online, with the platform profiting from the rake.

In this type of project, the daily work of a programmer often resembles that of a casino technical architect:

Responsible for writing betting contracts, lottery logic, liquidity pool management; researching on-chain random numbers to ensure fairness; creating various betting interfaces, odds displays, lottery animations; setting up dashboards in the backend to track wins and losses and commission returns.

Many technical staff think of themselves as just ordinary employees responsible for writing code, or believe in “technical neutrality,” but from the perspective of judicial authorities, technical personnel are regarded as key roles providing technical support to gambling platforms.

For example, in the EOS project gambling case [Case: (2023) Su09 Criminal Final 372], those involved developed a gambling platform called BigGame on the EOS blockchain and accepted bets; the technical personnel were responsible for platform product design, contract code writing, and platform client code writing, which were deemed as accomplices in the crime of operating a casino. It has been clearly established in practice that using blockchain and other technologies to establish gambling websites and accepting participants to bet with virtual currencies serves as the behavior defined as “operating a casino” under Article 303, paragraph 2 of the Criminal Law.

2. Perpetual Contract Development: The Gambling Nature of High-Leverage Trading

Another type of position very common in Web3 job searches is those disguised under the name of cryptocurrency exchanges and contract platforms. JD descriptions say things like: responsible for the development of perpetual contract matching, participating in high-concurrency trading system design, building risk control and liquidation mechanisms ... If the job seeker has experience in traditional finance or matching systems, it’s easy to conceive of it as working on a high-end financial product.

But the reality often is: the platform focuses on high-leverage perpetual contracts. Users bet on whether a certain cryptocurrency price will go up or down using USDT, with leverage as high as 150 times; if the direction is wrong, they instantly get liquidated, while the platform steadily collects fees and continuously takes commissions from liquidations, clearings, and funding rates.

In Web3 contract projects, programmers are often involved in the underlying support for the “trading engine”: achieving high-performance matching systems, margin models, liquidation and forced liquidation logic; building what is so-called risk control systems, but more to prevent the platform from losing money; and assisting product design in acquiring new users and creating growth mechanisms such as referrals, commission returns, and partner systems.

Although similar contract businesses can be legally operated in some foreign regions, the definitions in open court judgments in our country regarding these types of businesses have become increasingly clear: high-leverage contracts in most cases are regarded as gambling activities using virtual currencies as chips, making it hard for relevant technical, operational, and agency personnel to completely sever their responsibilities with “I’m just a worker.”

For example, in the CCFOX case [Case No.: (2024) Ji06 Criminal Final 10], the court determined that the virtual currency contract trading provided by the CCFOX platform exhibited speculative and incidental characteristics and was not regulated by the state; thus, the CCFOX platform should be identified as a gambling platform. Moreover, a person named Shen, as a technical developer for the CCFOX website responsible for its function development and providing technical services for the site, was deemed an accomplice in the crime of operating a casino.

3. On-Chain Prediction Markets: Betting Games Under the Guise of Financial Innovation

There is yet another class of positions in Web3 job searches that appear more high-end, known as prediction markets, event contracts, price prediction games. These platforms enjoy using flashy narratives:

Using market prices to aggregate collective wisdom, using trade to predict the future, assetizing all events ... sounds like a financial experiment.

But if you truly investigate the gameplay on their official site, you’ll find the core logic is still the same: the platform offers predictions on whether a certain cryptocurrency price will hit a certain level on a certain day, or whether certain macro events (such as the possibility of Trump being impeached again before the end of 2026, when the Federal Reserve will lower interest rates, or the end of the Russia-Ukraine conflict) will happen; users bet using virtual currency on whether it will occur or not, go up or down, and the platform or oracle determines the outcome, paying out based on odds while the platform takes a cut. This is fundamentally no different from binary options or betting on high or low, just wrapped in a layer of “prediction market” branding.

Technical positions are often packaged as highly technical: designing mechanisms for prediction contracts, implementing event creation, betting, settlement logic upon expiration, interfacing with oracles, arbitration systems ... but what you are actually doing remains managing liquidity pools, designing odds curves, and settlement rules — from a judicial perspective, this represents a complete set of ‘betting on outcomes, distributing wagers’ casino rules.

According to the spirit of the 146th guiding case issued by the Supreme Court, the gameplay in such prediction markets is essentially no different from traditional “betting high or low, betting on win or lose” gameplay; projects viewed by technical personnel as financial innovations may likely be evaluated and treated as possessing gambling attributes in domestic judicial practice.

4. Betting Payment Platforms: High-Risk Payment and Clearing Services

The final category is one where many Web3 job seekers can easily let their guard down, yet the criminal risks are exceptionally high: Providing recharge, withdrawal, and exchange services for betting platforms (i.e., gambling platforms or gambling websites).

Some companies often package themselves as payment technology, clearing and settlement platforms, or fourth-party payments, emphasizing keywords like aggregated payments, cross-border settlements, USDT payment gateways; the team claims to be a “USDT payment solution or wallet service provider.”

If you only look at the job content, you might think it's merely about integrating various payment channels and wallets, which seems like a normal business. However, the actual business model often is:

• Packaging legitimate payment tools like Alipay, WeChat, and bank cards into an “aggregated channel” and connecting it to overseas gambling websites;

• Or using USDT, game tokens, or points as intermediaries to help players achieve two-way exchanges between RMB and chips;

• Then using multiple accounts, channels, or intermediate wallets to facilitate money “laundering.”

In such companies, the daily work of programmers often focuses on:

Developing recharge/withdrawal systems, interfacing with fiat currency and on-chain wallet APIs, writing logic for currency and chips exchanges, setting up transaction streams and clearing backends, or even optimizing “approval rates” and reducing risk control interceptions.

But from a criminal justice perspective, such actions are typically summed up in one sentence: “Providing funding settlement and payment services for gambling websites.” For example, in the previously discussed case of a Web3 wallet company employee arrested across provinces (➡️ “Reflections on the Cross-Provincial Arrest of a Web3 Programmer: Three Legal Cognition Blind Spots for Practitioners”), the team of the person involved was taken away for investigation due to some partnering merchants being suspected of opening an online casino.

5. Lawyer Shao's Advice: Two-Step Self-Check Method to Avoid Legal Risks

Combining the above four common types of gambling platforms, Lawyer Shao provides the following core advice to Web3 job seekers:

First, mentally establish a red line: Any business whose essence is “someone puts money on the line, and the platform profits through odds or leverage” — no matter if it is called a contract, GameFi, prediction market, or payment technology — will most likely be treated as involving gambling in judicial practice.

When specifically searching for a job, you can apply the “two-step self-check method” to assess risks:

First, look at the overall model of the platform (consider the big picture): Carefully examine the project white paper, official website introduction, and product gameplay; as long as the overall logic approaches that of the Web3 gambling platform, contract betting, or betting payment channel mentioned above, you should be highly cautious and consider carefully before taking the job.

Then focus on your specific job responsibilities (consider the details): Clearly ascertain whether your actual functions involve betting logic, lottery rules, odds models, liquidation mechanisms, recharge and withdrawal processes, or funds clearing and settlement, concerning high-risk areas; as long as you deeply participate, it will be difficult to sever responsibility with “I’m just writing code.”

If you can identify risks early and decisively refuse offers, you can often avoid getting entangled in criminal matters. Once involved in such projects, job seekers face often more than just “changing jobs,” but the dual cost of restricted personal freedom and career interruption.

免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。