China completes major crackdown on rural gambling
China’s public security agencies claim to have confiscated CNY740m (US$105.6m) in illicit proceeds.
China.- Chinese public security agencies have announced the completion of a nationwide crackdown against rural gambling. They claim to have resolved over 10,000 criminal cases and 75,000 public security cases.
The Ministry of Public Security (MPS) reported on Wednesday (May 31) that the operations led to the seizure of approximately CNY740m (US$105.6m)in illicit gambling proceeds. It says some 91 monitored rural casino cases were addressed, starting in November 2022. That led to the investigation of over 2,800 underground casinos associated with criminal networks and the dismantling of more than 5,100 gangs.
Public security agencies, in collaboration with related departments, intensified inspections of hotspots and conducted undercover investigations. Some 523,000 locations were inspected, including 274,000 venues and gambling sites, through both overt and covert techniques.
Qi Xiguo, a senior inspector from the MPS’s Public Security Management Bureau, reported a reduction of 23.1 per cent in police reports of rural gambling after nearly six months of targeted operations. He said this has had a positive impact on the social climate and public security in rural areas.
Some 60 per cent of the cases investigated involved people returning to their hometowns during the Spring Festival holidays. He said the proliferation of rural transportation infrastructure and the improvement of farmers’ income had attracted “professional” gambling syndicates to establish mobile casinos in rural areas, with sophisticated organizational structures and clear division of work for planning, site selection, and debt management.
Qi said that despite these efforts, rural gambling still persists in some remote regions, with organised gambling the predominant form. The participation of people with a history of gambling, chronic gamblers, and unemployed individuals is commonly observed, he said. He added that rural gambling encompassed hundreds of different forms, with online gambling gaining prominence.
