Police break 1.7b yuan gambling ring

Baoshan district police arrested 43 members of a gambling ring who had taken in more than 1.7 billion yuan ($277.44 million) from their operations, which targeted locals who had received large amounts of money in relocation compensation from the government, police said in a press release Tuesday.

The police received a complaint about the gang from a local man, who had been illegally detained by members of the ring after running up a gambling debt of around 800,000 yuan.

He had gambled away his life savings and sold an apartment that he received in a relocation program to fund his gambling.

The police received several similar reports in the district. The victims were all locals who gambled away their relocation compensation on an online gambling platform.

There were more than 100 gamblers and about 50 ring members involved in the case. The ring operated as a pyramid scheme, with each level looking to recruit lower level agents to draw in gamblers.

The police detained the leaders of the ring - a man surnamed Zhou and his female partner - who lived in a villa, had a chauffeur, and wore luxury brands, despite having no stable jobs and coming from families of ordinary means.

Zhou had been previously punished by police in 2012 for illegal detention.

Police discovered that Zhou was working as an agent for an overseas gambling website which operates baccarat games. Zhou paid 7 percent of the ring's earnings to the overseas group, and distributed the rest to members in the scheme.

However, police had difficulty in proving that the ring members had acted illegally, as rather than using computers they were using customized Android software on their smartphones to access the gaming site.

The police have put 26 ring members under criminal custody, released four suspects on bail, and gave administrative penalties to the other 13 members of the ring.