Beijing (AsiaNews/SCMP) – Gambling is in for hard times in China. Speaking at a press conference, Zhou Yongkang, China's Minister of Public Security, gave the police its marching orders against gambling. 

Widespread among Chinese mainlanders, gambling is valued at 600 billion yuan per year (€ 60 billion or US$ 80 billion), or one quarter of all exports.

When the Communists came to power in 1949, they banned it as "a great incentive to moral and social degradation". However, some economists and sociologists have called on the government to decriminalise it.

In a conference held in Beijing last month, they argued that under the present law a huge flow of money goes into the pockets of organised crime instead of the state.

China does permit some form of gambling such as a state-run sports lottery and horse racing, where however betting is not allowed.

Sanctions against gamblers vary. Private citizens are not punished if they gamble outside the mainland. Macau, where gambling is legal, receives some 8 million visitors per month.

Still, Minister Zhou said a special police detachment will try to block the channels through which many Chinese go abroad only for gambling.

The government has also set up a 24-hour telephone hotline and a website to help pathological gamblers kick the habit, and allow citizens to report complaints and offer tips leading to arrests. Opened on Tuesday, the hotline has already received 200 calls.

Mr Zhou further announced a crackdown within the Communist Party whose officials, if caught involved in gambling at home or abroad, will be sacked and tried.

Former Shenyang deputy mayor Ma Xiangdong was executed for corrupt activities including gambling in Macau in the 1990s, and former Guangdong Taishan Sports Administration chief Li Jianyang was given a life sentence for similar offences committed from 1999 to 2001.

At the end of the press conference, Mr Zhou reiterated that gambling offences in China are punished with a three-year sentence and hefty fines.