Chinese Police Busts Illegal Gambling Ring

We always told you that the numbers will be huge once China starts gambling legally. Here is just a little orientation what kind of revenues can be expected.

Police in Shanghai was reported last Thursday to have broken up a Chinese internet gambling ring that was responsible for more than RMB 70 billion ($11.2 billion) in illegal wagers since January. That is 11.2 billion dollars.

According to a Shanghai Cyber Police spokesman, a three month investigation led to arrest of the biggest online gambling operation even seen by Chinese gambling law enforcement agencies.

The cyber police informed about the arrest of more than 50 suspects, at least RMB 3 million ($480,000) in cash seized and RMB 10 million ($1.6m) of client accounts frozen.

The ring profited from cooperation with unidentified overseas gambling websites, enabling Chinese internet users to put bets on European soccer games and online casino games. The websites were allegedly located in Southeast Asia and operated by ethnic Chinese.

Qu Weifang, head of the Shanghai Cyber Police commented: "The ring has had a very bad effect on society. We have found office workers and university students who have gambled away all of their money, and even their parents' apartments."

Weifang informed that criminal ring used gambling software from unidentified sources abroad. Chinese bets on soccer , the Champions League were the most popular options, as well as some online casino games.

The Shanghai Cyber Police has been running an anti-online gambling operation. Since August 2012, it claims to have prosecuted 954 cases involving 1,800 suspects.