Mobile Casino Raided in Shanghai for Breaking Chinese Gambling Laws

The draconian Chinese gambling laws which forbid all forms of gambling on the Chinese mainland have had little success in eliminating gambling itself.

According to online gambling news in China, gambling has been an integral part of the Chinese culture of thousands of years and is even a religious requirement around funeral wakes to ensure that the soul of the deceased is comforted.

Sahnghai police, by a fluke of luck, uncovered a massive mobile casino operating in the Chinese megacity. The casino was mobile in the sense that a group of hard core gamblers formed their own casino and every three days moved from one hotel to the next, renting out entire floors.

Police arrested seven people who also jointly owned an illegal foreign online casino in China and confiscated more than 100 million yuan ($15.4 million). The group had their own security to ensure that no one enters the rented hotel floors while the group of 50-200 gamblers spend days gambling. After the three or four days passed, the group packed up and moved to a different hotel.

"They acted like a normal tourist group visiting the city," said police. "Others would never know that millions of yuan would be changing hands in just one night."

At 11pm on June 16, more than 60 Shanghai police and investigators entered a bar area of a Shanghaies hotel on the ground floor where police believed a casino had been set up. No one was there, but fresh fruit and gambling chips were found. Police then broke into the rooms and seized most of the gamblers there.

The operator of the illegal Chinese mobile casino, surnamed Zou, was found hiding in a toilet, police said.

Officers said that money was transferred through an online banking with gamblers depositing money into Zou's account prior to receiving chips.

Zou told police that he was using Shanghai hotels after the Zhejiang police "strengthened the crackdowns."