HEAVY SENTENCES FOR CHINESE ONLINE GAMBLING ACCUSEDS

16 March 2007

"They win less than they pay, and will pay more when they lose"


Reporting the theft of a large sum of money to the police, yet being unable to explain the source of the money in the first place led to a major online gambling bust in China, reports the Shanghai Daily this week.

A Chinese court has sentenced six members of an online gambling operation in Shanghai to heavy punishments this week in what is reported to be the city's largest online gambling case, with wagers surpassing five billion yuan (US$646 million), and it all started with a report of theft to the police.

Gang leader Ren Bin was handed seven years in prison and a fine of six million yuan for illegal gambling by the People's Court in Luwan District today. Five other gang members, Liu Ping, Liu Guoliang, Liu Baolin, Guo Qin and Ni Liqiang were sentenced to between 12 months to 54 months of imprisonment and fines.

The police had been following the group since May last year but didn't have sufficient evidence linking them to illegal gambling until they received a theft report from one of the accused, Liu Baolin at the end of that month. Boalin reported to the police that someone had broken into his apartment, which he shared with Ren, and had stolen at least one million yuan in cash.

However, neither Ren nor Boalin could explain the source of the missing cash and a further five million yuan they had in a safe on the premises, which triggered further police investigations, revealing that gang members were collecting funds from online gambling.

Ren had earlier opened an overseas online gambling company and developed subordinate agencies and accounts for gamblers. Police found 5.25 billion yuan in wager cash in Ren's account alone.

The criminals confessed to conducting an online gambling operation soon after they were arrested.

Ren told the court that anyone who wants to get rich with gambling will ultimately lose. "They win less than they pay, and will pay more when they lose," Ren said.

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