Ex K-pop Idol Sentenced To 10 Months’ Jail For Operating Illegal Gambling Den

Recently, the topic “SNH48 member Lv Xiangyi was arrested for opening a gambling den” started trending on Weibo.

It was later found out through the Chinese Court on Publication of Judgment Documents that, since June 2024, the 21-year-old former K-pop star from Dalian, China, had had been running a gambling den in a shop she rented in Shanghai.

It’s said that Xiangyi, who left SNH48 in April, would invite punters to patronise her shop to play Texas Hold’em through WeChat and then charge them a fee for it.

She was arrested by the public security bureau on August 23 last year.

She’s since been sentenced to 10 months’ jail with one-year suspended sentence and a $10K yuan (S$1,861) fine.

Netizens were, as usual, quick to condemn Xiangyi for her crime.

“Our society is progressing. Even the ’00s kids can open casinos now,” saod one netizen.

Xiangyi, however, didn’t seem too apologetic about what she did.

She allegedly ranted on her fan page, writing: “Do I deserve to die just for playing cards?”

Xiangyi also admitted she was caught for playing Texas Hold’em in a shop, but did not know that the crime she’d committed was so severe due to her “lack of legal knowledge”.