HK brothers jailed for running online casinos
Two Hong Kong residents have been jailed for eight and five years by a court in Kunming , Yunnan , for running illegal online casinos that attracted more than more than 8 billion yuan (HK$9.12 billion) in bets from 5,000 punters in just seven months, China News Service reported yesterday.
The case was the mainland's biggest internet gambling case, the report said. It involved people from five provinces and municipalities.
So extensive and complicated was the case that the hearings in the Kunming Intermediate People's Court lasted more than two months.
The court on Thursday finally sentenced Hong Kong resident Tam Chi-wei, the ringleader, and his younger brother Tam Chi-moon.
Tam Chi-wei was given eight years in jail and fined 20 million yuan. His brother was sentenced to five years in prison and fined 5 million yuan, the report said.
Given the huge amount of money involved, the sentences were surprisingly lenient.
The report said that two other Hong Kong residents and 16 mainlanders were also sentenced and fined, but did not provide details.
It said the Hong Kong brothers and their father, Tam Hung, set up an underground gambling den called the New Oriental Casino in the border city of Ruili in 1999. They moved the business to Myanmar in 2004 after a police raid.
The family built up an extensive network, employing more than 3,000 staff, and had its own travel agencies, restaurants and hotels to cater to its mostly mainland clients.
They also set up at least seven internet gambling servers in several mainland cities since 2004. The internet gambling proved to be an instant success, with 5,198 mainlanders signing up, and raked in 8.68 billion yuan in bets in just seven months, the Kunming Daily said.
