Cops hit online gambling ring

Shanghai police detained 63 residents last month for their alleged connection to a 113 billion yuan ($18 billion) illegal online gambling ring, police announced on Sunday.

Their arrest warrants are pending, a police spokesman told the Global Times on Monday.

The group allegedly operated a Shanghai-based betting network for more than 10 years, police said in Sunday's press release, attracting more than 10,000 members by connecting them with overseas gambling websites and helping them place bets.

It is the biggest online gambling case since the Internet arrived on the Chinese mainland in 1994, Li Ming, a press officer for the Songjiang district police in Shanghai, told the Global Times.

The Shanghai ring operated a multi-tier web of bookies similar to a pyramid selling scheme.

Eighteen agents including the gambling ring founder controlled seven shareholder accounts, police said.

The investigation took more than six months, as police began assembling evidence in October 2013.

The boss registered as a shareholder at a Macao gambling website and shared this account with a close circle of Chinese mainland partners, investigators found.

His mainland partners acted as agents, expanding the network into a pyramid of multiple layers with members from across Shanghai.

Having confirmed the identity and location of key members as well as information about the bank accounts and money flows, police pounced on April 11.

They rounded up 63 suspects, froze 58 bank accounts and confiscated more than 60,000 yuan worth of cash and computers. They are now applying for an arrest warrant, Li said.

Police identified a 41-year-old man by the surname "Hong" as the boss of the multibillion yuan betting ring.

He was once allegedly a work unit team manager at a Shanghai printing factory and ran a legal business more than 10 years ago, they said.

Hong built connections with online casinos in Macao before launching his own business with close friends on the Chinese mainland where such gambling is strictly illegal.

Organized gambling for profit is illegal under China's criminal law. Offenders can be prosecuted and jailed for up to three years.

Online gambling is more hidden and difficult to track, Li told the Global Times on Monday, making the investigation and arrest tough work.

For example, the owner of the bank account used for money laundering may not be involved in gambling at all or in any direct relationship with key members of the group, he explained.