Students caught betting on sports

The Sanshui bureau of public security in Foshan, South China's Guangdong province, is looking into the case of 26 middle school students who were caught betting on NBA basketball games this past month to the tune of some 34,000 yuan ($5,400).

The gamblers are all senior middle school sophomores at Sanshui Experimental Middle School in Foshan.

The school reported the case to the Sanshui bureau of public security on Monday. The bureau is investigating the case to root out professional bookies, according to a bureau spokesman.

Liu Xiaoxiong, head of the Sanshui school's office of teaching affairs, told China Daily that on March 16, a teacher accidentally discovered a student placing bets on his cell phone. Upon questioning, the student revealed the names of other students who bet on NBA games.

"Our teachers immediately carried out a large-scale investigation among second-year students and have been talking to the students involved and their parents this past week," Liu said.

So far the school has suspended only two of the 26 students for a week. These students acted as brokers between other students and off-campus bookies.

As for the remaining 24 students, teachers are still discussing how to punish them.

"We are cautious not to punish the students severely," said Liu. "They just made a mistake and we don't want to see their futures ruined by this."

According to Liu, the students were not playing for high stakes, only 5 yuan to 200 yuan each person every time.

"The student gamblers are different from ordinary gamblers. For the students, making a correct prediction was more important than winning money," Liu said.

"Our focus is to tell under-age students how to distinguish between right and wrong rather than punish them," he added.

In the meantime, Guangzhou Daily published a story on Monday after receiving an anonymous phone call from a student who claimed that some students served as agents for off-campus bookies and collected wagers from classmates. The bookies contacted the students by cell phone text messages, the story said.

While the school is treating the errant students mildly, it is expecting the local public security bureau to crack down on off-campus sports bookies.

"We hope the police can be tougher on gambling, so that our students can focus on their studies without these bad influences from outside," Liu said.

He admitted that parents must also do more.

"Parents have to cooperate with schools in implementing school regulations, and be stricter with their children," Liu said. He complained that some parents pamper their children and buy them cell phones to bring to school, which is against school regulations.

The Sanshui school case was also discussed at a Sanshui bureau of education conference for middle school principals on Monday.

Bureau head Hu Ying told schools to strengthen moral education of students to prevent law-breaking behavior.

Betting on sports has spread to middle school campuses in the past few years.

In November 2011, seven students in a middle school in Nanhai district, Foshan, were involved in betting on basketball for 50,840 yuan. The bookie was later sentenced to seven months imprisonment with one year's probation.

Thirty students from a middle school in Dongguan, Guangdong province, were suspended for betting on sports earlier in 2009. The local public security bureau arrested six off-campus bookies one month later.

In 2010, a college in Dongguan required students to sign pledges that they would voluntarily quit school if caught betting on sports.