China puts pressure on neighbours to close border casinos

BEIJING (AP) - Pressure from China has forced the closure of more than 100 casinos operating along its borders due to worries the operations were being used to launder embezzled money, a Chinese newspaper reported. Gambling is illegal on the Chinese mainland but many Chinese travel outside the country to gamble, with casinos just over the border in Vietnam and Myanmar popular in the south, along with others over the border in Russia in the north.

The China Daily newspaper said police action and co-operation from other countries had seen the number of casinos drop from 149 in 2005 to 28 now.

"We expect the number will continue to drop this year," Zhang Jun, a Ministry of Public Security official involved in the crackdown, was quoted saying by the newspaper.

He said some cities helped by banning their casinos from admitting Chinese.

The newspaper said the casinos were being used to launder embezzled government funds or illegal business earnings.

The China Centre for Lottery Studies at Peking University has estimated the equivalent of C$118 billion was bet underground and overseas last year, about 10 times the amount that was spent on state-run lotteries.

The Communist party banned gambling when it took power in 1949 but it has resurfaced in recent years as the economy has opened up.

Legalized gambling has boomed in the territory Macau since it returned to Chinese rule in 1999. But gamblers and their spending can be more closely monitored there.

© The Canadian Press, 2007