80b-yuan gambling ring indicted

A Shanghai man and 16 others were indicted in Huangpu District People's Court Thursday for operating a gambling ring that delivered more than 80 billion yuan ($13 billion) to eight Macao-based gambling websites.

The Shanghai resident, Shou Fei, 36, was one of 10 defendants whom prosecutors charged with a crime equivalent to opening a casino.

Shou started the operation in July 2011 when he began working as an agent for the websites, according to the indictment. Shou hired five others to act as agents, including Jiang Zhengqian, who in turn hired four others.

The nature of the agents' relationship with the websites remains unclear.

Shou said in court that he and the others worked by recruiting gamblers on the Chinese mainland to join the websites. The ring provided the gamblers with accounts and passwords for the sites, where they could bet on soccer games and play the card game Baccarat.

Every agent had an account that held the money staked by the gamblers they recruited.

Online gambling is illegal on the mainland and most gambling websites are blocked.

The ring served as a conduit that allowed gamblers to withdraw their winnings from the websites when they won and deposit more money when they lost, though it remains unclear how the ring moved the money overseas, according to the testimony of the ring's accountant, Hu Ming.

The agents earned a commission, plus 1 percent of the money the gamblers lost on the sites. By the time the agents were arrested in July 2012, Shou had earned a profit of 11 million yuan, according to the indictment.

Prosecutors said the 10 agents were the primary suspects in the case, though there were four others involved who were in charge of recruiting gamblers, as well as an accountant, a cashier and a driver, according to the indictment.

According to China's Criminal Law, people who open casinos can be sentenced to no more than three years in prison, though they can be sentenced to up to 10 years in serious cases.

The court did not issue sentences Thursday. Shou and Jiang had been under probation since 2011, when they were convicted of opening a casino. Because they committed a crime under probation, prosecutors suggested that they receive heavier sentences.

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