Guangdong police step up anti-gambling efforts

BEIJING: A senior police officer has promised to give top priority in the months ahead to fighting criminal gangs and shadow banks, as well as going after organisers and managers of online gambling.

Cai Hui, director of the social security bureau of the Guangdong Department of Public Security, said police across the province would spare no effort to bust officials or law enforcement officers who act as “protective umbrellas” for gambling by tipping off the criminals.

Cai, who made the comments at a news conference in Guangzhou on Thursday, said Guangdong police had arrested 140 suspected gam blers after busting a major online gambling ring in Jiangmen in the western part of the Pearl River Delta.

“The detainees include more than 74 bankers, organisers, gang leaders and key members,” Cai said.

“The gang, which was active for years, created six websites to attract online gamblers over the past years.

“The suspected gamblers came from major cities in the Pearl River Delta and the neighbouring Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.”

The case involved more than 1.3 billion yuan (RM804mil) and police have frozen more than 2,900 bank accounts suspected of being used for online gambling, said Cai, who is also director of the bureau, which investigates food and drug safety violations and environmental pollution.

A large number of bank cards, mobile phones and computers was also seized in the two police operations on March 12 and April 2.

Cai urged the public, particularly youths, to be aware of gambling websites because many people are introduced to them via online games.

“They become addicted to online gambling after first winning game coins in online games,” he added.

A boy in Guangzhou sought help from police after he lost 150,000 yuan (RM92,786) through online gambling earlier this year.

“Before the boy got into online gambling, he had been lured to play online games and was rewarded,” Cai said.

According to Cai, a special task force was established in December to focus on investigating a case when police found that a growing number of local residents had participated in online gambling.

He also hinted that special campaigns and operations would be launched to fight online gambling and related cybercrimes in the months ahead.