Gambling network revealed

A series of reports have alleged that there is an underground gambling industry in Kaili, Southwest China's Guizhou province, after a deadly explosion last week hit a local village.

The explosion killed 15 people and injured eight others on January 13. Police investigations reportedly determined that the blast site was an underground gambling den and that the casualties were people who had gathered to gamble.

Local unlicensed taxi driver Li Songming (pseudonym) earns money driving gamblers to the dens. He told The Beijing News there were two other dens operating in the mountains near Laoshan village, which all belong to the same group of owners.

Another local, who asked to use the pseudonym Liu Fei, accused local officials of having links to the underground dens. "The dens are connected with village and town governments, and the police as well."

Liu himself was a part owner of a gambling den last year. A former mine owner, Liu began gambling in 2008 and went bankrupt in three months.

He estimated that around 100 gamblers visit the den every day, with around 1 million yuan ($165,200) passing through it each day, sometimes more. He said the dealers have to pay up to 20 percent of their daily earnings to the owners, and then the owners pay around 20,000 yuan to local officials and police officers for their protection.

According to The Beijing News, Laoshan village is one of the poorest and most remote villages in the country. The average annual income of the villagers is 1,300 yuan.

Gambler Cai Yun would rather drive 120 kilometers to Laoshan village to gamble than do so near his own residence. "It is safer there, almost no police will come for inspections, due to the relationship between the owner and the police," he told the Oriental Morning Post.

"The public security bureau and police stations are the most important relationships to cultivate," another gambler and former gambling den owner, Pang Huang (pseudonym), told the Oriental Morning Post.

Kaili, the capital of the Qiandongnan Miao and Dong Autonomous Prefecture, of southeast Guizhou, is known for its residents' gambling habits. According to police statistics, the prefecture's underground lottery network traded sums of over 100 million yuan last year.

According to information from the Oriental Morning Post, the chief of the Kaili Public Security Bureau has been suspended. The head of Longchang town and the head of the town police station have been removed from their positions.

Xinhua reported that, from January 15 to 18, Kaili police shut down 149 gambling dens, investigated 68 people in connection with gambling, and confiscated 485 gambling devices. Local governments also organized villagers into patrols to discover illegal gambling.

The major suspect of the explosion, a 35-year-old man named Wu Bo, has been remanded in police custody for further investigation.