Gambling charges yield probation

Jing'an District People's Court sentenced three employees of a local gaming center to two months of probation for operating a gambling establishment, the court said Wednesday.

The defendants, whom the court called Huang Jian, He Jiang and Zhu Song, had been working at the gaming center for less than a year, according to a court press release. Huang was a manager, while He and Zhu worked respectively as a cashier and an attendant.

Police raided the center in September, confiscating five gambling machines and an undisclosed amount of cash, the court said.

The three defendants told police that the center earned about 20,000 yuan ($3,206) a day from the machines, and many of the gamblers came frequently to play them.

The employees said they would usually give gamblers 10 yuan so they could get a cab ride home on days when they lost all of their money, according to the court.

One customer, a 60-year-old man surnamed Wang, lost 2,000 yuan playing the machines while he waited for his grandson to finish a piano lesion at a nearby tutoring center.

The defendants were all aware that the machines were used for gambling, said Li Hongguang, a court press officer.

The court sentenced them to between two and four months of criminal detention, but suspended the sentences. They will only serve time in detention if they fail to meet the terms of their probation. They were also each fined between 1,000 yuan and 2,000 yuan.

Li said the company that owned the business will be tried in a separate case.