China gambling crackdown affects border casinos

SHANGHAI, China, AP Scores of casinos along China's borders with Russia and Myanmar have closed amid a major Chinese crackdown on gambling, official media reported Monday. A dearth of high-rolling Chinese gamblers has shuttered all but one of the 82 Myanmar casinos along the border with southwestern China, the Xinhua News Agency and newspapers said. Myanmar is also known as Burma. Along Russia's border with northeastern Heilongjiang province, 18 out of 28 casinos have been forced to shut, the reports said. "Those remaining in operation are in a poor state," said the Xinhua report, quoting an unidentified official with the national anti-gambling task force. China recently has taken a hard stance against illegal gambling, thought to be linked to official corruption, organized crime and other social ills. Chinese police have uncovered more than 48,000 gambling cases -- including 320 that used the Internet -- and seized 230 million yuan (US$28 million) since the crackdown began at the start of the year, according to Xinhua. Xinhua gave no figures for arrests or punishments, but an earlier Xinhua report from late January said 15,000 people had been arrested in that month alone. The high profile of the crackdown has apparently scared many Chinese away from the poorly regulated border casinos that are a prime venue for illicit gambling. Players are believed to often use embezzled government funds or illegal business profits and authorities have identified the casinos as a source of capital flight, Xinhua said. China banned gambling, long a popular pastime, after the 1949 Communist revolution. But betting resurged as social controls loosened in recent years, with Chinese gamblers becoming sought-after customers in casinos from Macau to Las Vegas.