Minister of Public Security Zhou Yongkang told the meeting that law-enforcement agents would block organised gambling tours by mainland punters.

It also would launch investigations into Communist Party cadres and officials of state-owned enterprise who gambled.

The nationwide campaign will mainly focus on regions where gambling is widespread, such as the Pearl River Delta and areas bordering North Korea.

Mr Zhou said gambling had 'seriously undermined socio-economic development and the fundamental interests of the people'.

Party and government officials found gambling would be severely punished.

On the first day of the hotline service, the ministry received more than 200 telephone reports, according to Xinhua.

To encourage the public to provide information, the ministry will reward active informers and those who help expose large-scale gambling offences. The telephone hotlines run 24 hours a day.

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection announced this week that officials who took part in gambling would be removed from their posts and disciplined.

The announcement of the renewed crackdown follows comments by President Hu Jintao last year describing the battle against widespread corruption as the key to the survival of the ruling Communist Party.

Gambling is widely seen as a cradle of corruption on the mainland. The Communist Party outlawed gambling after it came to power in 1949, but it has made a resurgence since the economy was opened up and reforms implemented.

Anybody who for profit assembles a crowd to engage in gambling, opens a casino or earns a living from gambling can be fined and sentenced to three years in prison.

The Security Administration Punishment Regulations also prohibit recreational gambling.

While still illegal, betting at racetracks has re-emerged and mainlanders regularly place wagers on soccer teams. But some mainland gamblers prefer to go to other countries and regions for a flutter.

This month, a Beijing newspaper reported mainland tourists, including Communist officials, were the main patrons at a five-star hotel and casino in North Korea, squandering millions of yuan each year.

In Macau's casinos, mainlanders - including officials - make up a large proportion of punters.

Asked to respond to the new drive, Macau's secretary for social affairs and culture, Fernando Chui Sai-on, said: 'Although I have not read any documents about the new policy, I have always believed that mainland officials should obey the law set by the government.'

Gu Yongzhong, a professor at the China University of Political Science and Law, said he believed the ban would not apply to individual travellers who did not hold any official post. He noted that in parts of the mainland, especially in the Pearl River Delta, channels had been set up to illegally buy Mark Six lottery tickets and to bet on soccer games played overseas.

The ministry did not elaborate on the scope of the ban.

Hong Kong Jockey Club information secretary Wilson Cheng Kwok-ming said the club had not yet received any requests to co-operate with Beijing on the anti-gambling campaign and it would not affect its business.

Additional reporting by Freda Wan and Shi Ting