Chief suspects in major gambling case to be tried

Seven of the 14 suspects detained for involvement in a major gambling case in Nanning, capital of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, will be tried in court.

`They include Jiang E'ping, his wife and five other women. The prosecution will be conducted by the Xixiangtang District Procuratorate of Nanning, local police sources said.

According to the sources, acting on tips, the police of Nanning detained 14 people suspected of illegally organizing and operating a gambling racket called "liuhecai" or "mark-six lottery", on the night of April 1.

Jiang E'ping, kingpin of the gambling clique, was captured from his home where police also seized other evidence of gambling, such as a registration book recording money flow of the gambling clique from August 2004 through to April 2005.

Police sources said the underground gambling clique organized and operated lotteries worth 11 million yuan (about 1.33 million US dollars) and earned more than 1.6 million yuan (about 192,770 US dollars) from the illicit operation from August 2004 through April 2005.

Though banned on the Chinese mainland, a growing number of people on the mainland have been organizing and operating underground gambling organizations without permits by borrowing the rules of the mark-six lottery, which is actually an open, legal public lottery activity organized by the equestrian association in Hong Kong.

If convicted, Jiang and his accomplices will face penalties including imprisonment of less than three years, certain periods of detainment, plus fines, according to Ji Kunfeng, a lawyer with Kunhui Law Firm in Guangxi.

Source: Xinhua