China’s police racking up the illegal online gambling scalps

Another day, another takedown of a China-facing illegal online gambling operation, as local residents continue to defy their government’s blanket ban on non-lottery gambling activity.

On Thursday, China Court Network reported that police in Cixi City in Zhejiang province had arrested 71 individuals suspected of involvement in a pair of illegal online casino operations offering baccarat games to Chinese gamblers.

According to the report, the Zhejiang Provincial Public Security Bureau began its investigation earlier this year after receiving a tip-off from a disgruntled customer of the gambling site. Raids involving 140 police officers were launched way back in March, although, as is typical in Chinese gambling cases, the details are only now being released.

The report fingered two men identified only as Ye and Jiang as the top of a pyramid of agents who enlisted customers for the gambling site, which was based in an unspecified foreign jurisdiction. Ye and Jiang were apparently once partners, but Jiang broke off to form his own online operation.