Chinese police arrest 77 in World Cup gambling rings

Police seized computers and money from nine groups in Beijing and China’s south and southwest, the Xinhua News Agency said. It said several groups were run from Hong Kong and Taiwan.

One ring in Chengdu, a city in the southwest, handled one billion yuan (US$120 million; euro100 million) in bets, Xinhua said. But it didn’t give a time period or say how much of that was World Cup-related.

Gambling was outlawed in China after the 1949 communist revolution but has flourished in recent years amid rising incomes and looser social restrictions. The government regularly reports breaking up underground gambling parlors.

The Chengdu group, with 2,000 registered gamblers, was run from abroad, possibly Hong Kong, Macau or Taiwan, the report said.

A computer seized from a ring in Beijing showed it had been used for bets totaling more than 100 million yuan (US$12.5 million; euro10 million) in one month, Xinhua said.

Police arrested 24 suspects in Beijing, 20 in Chengdu and 33 in Guangdong province, which borders Hong Kong, according to Xinhua.

In Guizhou province in the southwest, nine people were arrested for running four online betting rings for bosses in Macao and Taiwan, the report said.

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