GAMBLERS will remain under a police hammer over the next five months, the Ministry of Public Security said January 17 in Beijing. The central government has set up a special team to deal with the problem across the nation, with the issue regarded as a cradle of corruption.

Officials from such departments as foreign affairs, tourism, education, customs, telecoms and finance, as well as those from the Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate, are members of the team. Overseas casinos and their agents operating in China will be the main targets of the crackdown, according to the ministry.

Party and government officials, as well as senior managers of State-owned enterprises, are forbidden from participating in gambling activities. Those caught violating this rule will be severely punished.

The current anti-gambling campaign has won support from the general public. News from the Beijing Youth Daily said the ministry has already received over

3,000 reports about gambling through their newly launched hotline and website. Many of these reports have become important clues for the police.

The anti-gambling campaign has forced 84 casinos and small gambling houses in neighbouring countries out of business over the past two months, the newspaper reported. Casinos in Myanmar, Laos and Viet Nam along China's southwestern border have been forced to close after their business shrank dramatically in the wake of an intensified fight against gambling carried out since last December by police in Yunnan Province. Chinese gamblers are the main patrons in these casinos, most of which are funded and run by Chinese, the paper quoted an unidentified local police official in Yunnan as saying. Authorities in neighbouring countries have banned their residents from entering the casinos, he added.

With the help of its foreign counterparts, police in Yunnan have begun to hunt Chinese casino bosses, cut off banking services, and prevent Chinese gamblers from betting abroad. Earlier this month, the Yunnan provincial government reported that 68 casinos in Myanmar and Laos were closed down while 14 others were operating at loss and close to closure. Large number of Chinese staff in the casinos were persuaded to return home.

China has long banned gambling, prostitution and drugs, but in recent years a growing number of wealthy Chinese, especially some corrupt officials, have gambled away millions in casinos outside the Chinese mainland. (Star-Xinhua)