Chinese Online Gambling Ring Busted

Published: Thursday, July 06, 2006 Online-Casinos.com

CHINESE ONLINE GAMBLING RING BUSTED

No let-up in Chinese blitz on gambling

Reuters reports this week indicate that police in China's southwestern province of Sichuan have brought down a 1 billion yuan ($125 million) soccer gambling ring, as World Cup betting reaches fever pitch.

Gambling has been illegal in mainland China since the Communists took power in 1949.

An online betting Web site set up in Hong Kong by an "underground" company and run in Sichuan's capital Chengdu had over 2 000 registered users from across the country, the Beijing News revealed.

On June 22, police detained over 20 suspects involved in the syndicate, which, from July 2005, had received bets totaling over 1 billion yuan, it is claimed.

Chinese police launched a major crackdown on illicit soccer betting earlier this year, but Web sites offering gambling accounts and mainland phone numbers are readily accessible despite China's estimated 30 000-strong army of online censors.

In 2004, police broke up an online betting syndicate in southeastern Fujian province estimated to have attracted 13.6 billion yuan ($1.70 billion) in one month alone.