Australian national arrested in online gambling charges in China

The Australian Foreign Affairs ministry has confirmed that it has been notified of an Australian national arrested in China on allegations of involvement in online gambling.

The ministry is providing consular support for the man, who was reportedly arrested along with 51 others in a police anti-online gambling sweep; his identity has not been released, but he is apparently of Chinese ethnicity but Australian citizenship.

Chinese media reports indicate that the arrests took place in Jiangsu province and were part of a 200 officer-strong police operation that targeted several cities in the province.

The Xinhua news agency reported early February that 27 people were arrested and another 25 were still detained as part of a wider investigation launched by police in Shenyang, in north-east China, targeting an online gambling group. Assets worth 43.6 million yuan ($8.7 million) were frozen as a result. The detentions took place in Guangdong, Shejiang, Jiangsu, Shanghai, and Guangxi provinces.

Local media said two of the individuals involved rented internet servers which were used to set up multiple gambling websites in China.