Thousands Arrested In Swoop On High Rollers
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday February 5, 2005
Chinese police have arrested more than 4000 people in the past three weeks in a crackdown on cross-border gambling said to siphon an estimated $94 billion out of the country each year - much of it embezzled funds from government agencies and banks.
A mid-level transport official named Cai Haowen in the remote Yanbian autonomous region on the North Korean border appears to have set the police campaign rolling when he fled the country on December 14. Cai had made 27 trips in the previous 11 months to the nearby casino in the Rajin-Sonbong free trade zone across the Tumen River in North Korean territory.It is run by the Emperor Entertainment Group of the Hong Kong tycoon Albert Yeung. Cai funded himself with 2.3 million yuan ($360,000) of his department's money, plus 1.25 million yuan borrowed from transport companies supervised by his office, and a further 3.5 million yuan derived from mortgage loans. Wang Hongjun, a professor at the Chinese People's Public Security University in Beijing, said the case was far from atypical. "About 600 million yuan is spent in overseas casinos by Chinese gamblers annually," he told the newspaper Beijing Today. "What is remarkable is that most of this gambling is done by corrupt governmental officials." The Emperor casino in North Korea closed its doors on January 15, three days after the Chinese anti-gambling campaign was launched, though the company insists the two events are unrelated. "We are undergoing the winter low season," a spokeswoman said. "So the management of that hotel decided it was a good time for interior renovation of the casino. It will take a few months." Chinese police are trying to choke the flow of Chinese customers and funds to a ring of 200 casinos located on the borders with Russia, North Korea, Burma and Mongolia. "Most foreign casinos in border areas strictly prohibit their own citizens from entering," Wu Mingshan, a senior official in the Ministry of Public Security, told China Central Television. "They target only Chinese gamblers." The Public Security Ministry claims 82 of these casinos have been forced to close because of the lack of Chinese customers. "We will squeeze the space in which border casinos operate," said its vice-minister, Bai Jingfu. Travellers are being searched for cash in excess of the $US5000 ($6500) now allowed outgoing tourists. Chinese banks have been told to shut down ATMs near border crossings and stop credit card payments to identified gambling operations. The ministry has targeted illegal internet gambling rings which are often linked to Taiwanese and Hong Kong syndicates. Betting on football has become feverish among some of China's 80 million internet users. Exemplary trials of officials caught gambling with stolen funds are getting under way. This week, charges were laid against 46 staff of the state-owned China Construction Bank in Jilin province. They are alleged to have embezzled 542 million yuan, with about 60 per cent of the money gambled in Macau casinos or on soccer betting with underground bookmakers. Police insist they do not want to spoil the fun at celebrations for the start of the Year of the Rooster next Wednesday, when cards or mah-jong tiles are customarily brought out after dinner. "Gambling for the sake of good luck is not within the scope of our crackdown," said a Public Security Ministry official.
© 2005 Sydney Morning Herald