Provincial police in Fujian and Sichuan have smashed dozens of online underground gambling syndicates that have handled about 4 billion yuan (HK$4.6 billion), and detained nearly 800 suspects.
With the World Cup beginning in South Africa on June 11, police in Fujian told China News Service on Tuesday that they had cracked down on 24 soccer-related illicit gambling rings with more than 3.6 billion yuan involved and detained 769 suspects since January.
A spokesman for the provincial Public Security Department said co-operation among departments on the same and different levels of government had made the campaign a success.
Police in Quanzhou busted three online gambling cases, including a website operated by a Hong Kong resident, and arrested 116 suspects as well as seizing nearly 100 million yuan, the news service added.
In a similar case, police in Fuzhou, the provincial capital, smashed a gambling network that used a Hong Kong-based service provider. Police arrested 34 suspects and confiscated more than 310,000 yuan and two cars.
A total of 33 people were detained by police in Xiamen and Nanping in operations related to illegal gambling websites.
