{"id":113683,"date":"2019-08-30T18:05:34","date_gmt":"2019-08-31T01:05:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=113683"},"modified":"2019-08-31T12:05:16","modified_gmt":"2019-08-31T19:05:16","slug":"china-police-arrest-36-suspects-involved-with-810000-member-gambling-operation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/china-police-arrest-36-suspects-involved-with-810000-member-gambling-operation\/","title":{"rendered":"China Police Arrest 36 Suspects Involved with 810,000-Member Gambling Operation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some 36 suspects have been apprehended in China\u2019s Zhejiang Province in connection with a massive online gambling ring. The bust involved approximately $75.8 million and about 810,000 members, officials announced on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\"\"
China Public Security Minister Zhao Kezhi has promised to crack down on online gambling. Chinese police recently arrested 36 gambling suspects. (Image: Visual China)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The operation was set up by a gang, police said. It grew from when it was started last September, so that it needed to hire 150,000 agents, police added.<\/p>\n

The inquiry originated last December, when Jiaxing police were told that a local resident was allegedly promoting an online gambling platform on WeChat. Police arrested the suspect in January.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In May, local police conducted raids on the gang\u2019s operations. The arrests took place in Chongqing Municipality, Shenzhen, and Chengdu.<\/p>\n

This week, China\u2019s Xinhua News Agency said police were continuing to investigate the operation.<\/p>\n

Arrests Just Drop of Water in an Ocean<\/h2>\n

When asked for comments on the latest gambling arrests, Sophal Ear, an associate professor of diplomacy and world affairs at California\u2019s Occidental College, told Casino.org<\/em>, \u201c36 suspects — when 810,000 people are involved, of whom 150,000 are agents — seems like a drop in an ocean.<\/p>\n

Online gambling is the natural outgrowth of making gambling illegal, save for two national lotteries that aren’t considered gambling,\u201d Ear added. \u201cWho is to say the police raid was not targeting an operation that failed to pay them off?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ear further asked: \u201cHow many of the 810,000 are officials? Probably more than a few. I mean, who has money to gamble? It isn’t going to be poor people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The arrests are likely to continue, Ear confirmed. \u201cAs the Chinese say: Kill the chicken, scare the monkey,\u201d Ear added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese arrests are supposed to have a demonstration effect — frighten people, but if only 36 get caught out of hundreds of thousands, the odds to me look pretty good (0.0044444444444 percent of 810,000 or 0.024 percent of 150,000),\u201d Ear explained.<\/p>\n

If authorities arrested everyone, which would total hundreds of thousands of people, \u201cthey wouldn’t have enough prisons for everyone. So, they target the ring leaders,\u201d Ear explained.<\/p>\n

Also, Ear confirmed criminals involved with the gambling ring could be connected to other illegal activity. \u201cWhenever you criminalize something, there’s going to be a higher chance that the house is engaged in other work that is also illegal,\u201d Ear said.<\/p>\n

Examples could include racketeering, and money laundering. Australian and Cambodian casinos could be laundering the money, Ear claimed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe same can be said of officials who are bribed to allow this to happen under their watch. They, too, need to launder their money,\u201d Ear alleged.<\/p>\n

China Curbs Online Gambling<\/h2>\n

Last month, China Public Security Minister Zhao Kezhi promised to stop online gambling taking place across national borders. Several gambling rings have since closed.<\/p>\n

Also, Chinese officials recently asked Philippines to ban online gambling. Much of it is apparently targeting those from China.<\/p>\n

The Philippines Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR)<\/a> has\u00a0instead stopped accepting new license applications\u00a0for Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations (POGO).<\/p>\n

PAGCOR head of offshore gaming, Victor Padilla, claimed none of the Philippines\u2019 licensed POGOs<\/a> are Chinese-owned companies, nor do they target gamblers within China.<\/p>\n

China urged the Philippine government to take \u201cconcrete and effective measures\u201d against operators accepting play from China. Also, Chinese officials have \u201cgrave concerns\u201d that its citizens are being forced into slave-like labor conditions when they take jobs in Philippines off-shore gaming networks.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Many Chinese people are hired by POGO call centers. They work as service reps, speaking with foreign customers in their native Mandarin dialect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some 36 suspects have been apprehended in China\u2019s Zhejiang Province in connection with a massive online gambling ring. The bust involved approximately $75.8 million and about 810,000 members, officials announced on Thursday. The operation was set up by a gang, police said. It grew from when it was started last September, so that it needed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":113685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPolice Arrest 36 Suspects in China Who Work for Gambling Ring<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Some 36 suspects were arrested in China\u2019s Zhejiang Province in connection to an online gambling operation.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Police Arrest 36 Suspects in China Who Work for Gambling Ring\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Some 36 suspects were arrested in China\u2019s Zhejiang Province in connection to an online gambling operation.\" \/>\n<meta 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