A MAN was rescued from attempting suicide on the rooftop of a game company’s office building in Nanshan District on Dec. 19. The man complained that he had lost over 1 million yuan (US$143,899) in an online poker game developed by the company, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported yesterday.

    The man, surnamed Li, said that he has been playing the poker game developed by Boyaa, a Shenzhen game company, on QQ for three years. After losing over 1 million yuan in the game, he thought of killing himself by jumping from the rooftop of the company’s office building.

    Li said he had talked to several other players, who said they’d lost up to millions of yuan in the game. Another player, surnamed Zhang, said that he had lost over 1 million yuan since he started playing the game in October 2014.

    Even though gambling is illegal in China, players can buy virtual money for online games and it’s legal as long as the virtual money can’t be cashed out.

    Li said that although players can’t cash out their virtual money in the poker game, there are many “virtual money traders” who can help players buy or sell their virtual money.

    The Daily’s reporter contacted two “virtual money traders” on QQ, and one said that he would buy 2.05 million game coins for 100 yuan and sell 2.15 million game coins for 100 yuan. Meaning the trader can earn 4.65 yuan every time he makes a 100-yuan deal.

    After the reporter transferred 100 yuan to the trader, he played a one-on-one game with the reporter and intentionally lost 2.05 million game coins to the reporter in the poker game.

    Later, the reporter cut a deal with another trader to sell 6.45 million game coins to him. Similarly, after intentionally losing the virtual money to the trader in the game, the reporter received 300 yuan from the trader.

    Li and Zhang said some players who top the rankings in the game are also “virtual money traders” who sell game coins on Taobao.com.

    According to Li, traders have to obtain permission and pay deposits to buy virtual money from “trade agents.” Li’s friend, who is a trader, told Li that agents have to sign contracts with Boyaa and pay deposits to the company. “I think Boyaa controls these agents, or it would be hard to explain where the traders got their large amounts of virtual money,” Li said.

    Players can only buy 950,000 game coins for 100 yuan in the game, but they can buy 2.05 million game coins from traders for the same price, according to the report.

    A Boyaa spokesperson said that the company doesn’t allow the trading of virtual money among players, and players’ accounts would be banned if they were found trading virtual money offline.

    Tencent said that it would monitor the accounts of players suspected to be “virtual money traders” and ban their accounts if they were found trading virtual money. However, it will be difficult for the company to monitor offline trading between players, the report said. (Zhang Yang)