Big sports betting ring smashed
By Chris Buckley |
July 7, 2010, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
POLICE smashed an illegal gambling gang that hoped to score big from the World Cup, with the alleged ringleader "Dark Brother" accused of dealings worth 100 billion yuan (US$14.7 billion).
The gang accused of running a sophisticated and secretive online betting network since 2006 was broken up on June 7, days before the start of the World Cup, according to yesterday's Guangzhou Daily.
Many of the wagers were placed in Guangdong Province.
China's scandal-plagued football team failed to qualify for the World Cup, but that has not dampened the enthusiasm of Chinese fans, and quite a few have bet on matches, despite the country's ban on gambling. The government allows only small bets through state-run sports lotteries.
"Off the field, the enthusiasm of ordinary fans to take part in football gambling has been growing and the talons of gambling gangs extend across the country and soccer betting is rampant," said the newspaper.
Police arrested the gang leader, a Hong Kong man nicknamed "Dark Brother," when he was leaving a cocaine-fuelled nightclub party in the early hours of June 7 in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province.
"The case of the gambling gang involves accumulated sums of over 100 billion yuan," said the report, citing police claims.
"The black hand behind this massive gambling racket was a gambling baron who hid in the Shenzhen-Hong Kong area," it said.
"Dark Brother" and his subordinates ran a tightly organized network across southern and eastern China that took wagers through the Internet.
Another leader in the gang was a woman nicknamed "Old Cat," the report said. She helped run the operation from an ordinary-looking apartment, where she lived with her child, it said.
Neighbors said they had no idea. "She was the ringleader of a gambling gang? I never saw that," a neighborhood management official told the paper.
The gang made its money by taking a share of the ante that gamblers wagered on matches, the report said.
The gang accused of running a sophisticated and secretive online betting network since 2006 was broken up on June 7, days before the start of the World Cup, according to yesterday's Guangzhou Daily.
Many of the wagers were placed in Guangdong Province.
China's scandal-plagued football team failed to qualify for the World Cup, but that has not dampened the enthusiasm of Chinese fans, and quite a few have bet on matches, despite the country's ban on gambling. The government allows only small bets through state-run sports lotteries.
"Off the field, the enthusiasm of ordinary fans to take part in football gambling has been growing and the talons of gambling gangs extend across the country and soccer betting is rampant," said the newspaper.
Police arrested the gang leader, a Hong Kong man nicknamed "Dark Brother," when he was leaving a cocaine-fuelled nightclub party in the early hours of June 7 in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province.
"The case of the gambling gang involves accumulated sums of over 100 billion yuan," said the report, citing police claims.
"The black hand behind this massive gambling racket was a gambling baron who hid in the Shenzhen-Hong Kong area," it said.
"Dark Brother" and his subordinates ran a tightly organized network across southern and eastern China that took wagers through the Internet.
Another leader in the gang was a woman nicknamed "Old Cat," the report said. She helped run the operation from an ordinary-looking apartment, where she lived with her child, it said.
Neighbors said they had no idea. "She was the ringleader of a gambling gang? I never saw that," a neighborhood management official told the paper.
The gang made its money by taking a share of the ante that gamblers wagered on matches, the report said.
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