CHINESE ANTI-GAMBLING COPS WERE BUSY LAST YEAR

12 January 2007

347 000 busts involving over a million players

The Chinese publication Xinghua reports that China's police busted a total of 347 000 gambling cases involving more than a million people last year and retrieved 3.56 billion yuan (445 million U.S. dollars) of betting money, according to a Ministry of Public Security statement this week.

Police departments had specially targeted illegal private lotteries, gambling at overseas casinos, online betting and gambling cases involving Party cadres, said an official with the ministry.

Despite a long tradition of gambling, the pastime was outlawed on the Chinese mainland in 1949 when New China was founded, other than state lotteries.

An amendment to the Criminal Law at the end of 2005 intensified punishment for illegal casino operators, who may face up to 10 years in prison, in addition to fines.

"It has provided us with a powerful legal weapon in the crackdown on gambling," the official said.

Online Casino News courtesy of InfoPowa

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