Police in China bust US$72 billion gambling promotion ring

The Chinese government is clearly very serious about clamping down on corruption-associated activity like gambling, underlining their threats to enforce strict laws this week by busting a gambling ring that has been providing services so that Chinese whales could travel to other destinations in Southeast Asia to gamble.

The Xinhua news service reports that 94 members of the gambling ring have been detained, seriously curtailing an operation that allegedly arranged for around 400 Chinese punters to travel to casinos in Laos and Myanmar and spend the equivalent of US$72 billion in Chinese currency.

The latest police operation comes soon after 18 employees of the Australian casino company Crown Resorts – three of them visiting managers – were arrested and remain detained in China on what are understood to be contraventions of Chinese laws regarding the promotion of gambling (see previous reports).

One of the three visiting executives is a senior manager whose responsibilities include VIP high roller customers, according to media reports.

A Chinese court is also currently hearing a case against one of the ringleaders of an organisation that ran a massive online gambling operation which since 2012 has generated wagers of around US$60 billion from over 2 million registered players, and profits of almost US$600 million.

Related and similar