Pudong New Area People's Court has sentenced 28 people to up to
32 months in prison for their involvement in Shanghai's biggest
online soccer gambling scheme, which took bets worth almost 100
million yuan (US$13.16 million).
Sentences ranged from nine months to two years and eight months
jail, the Xinhua news agency reported.
Fang Changli, the head of the gambling ring, gained a soccer
gambling account with overseas gambling Website with the help of
Sun Ye in March, last year, the court said.
Fang then offered the account to Yu Zhengqiu who had to attract
others to bet on games. Sun was said to be responsible for all the
transactions between Fang and the overseas Website.
Yu later recruited nine people into the gambling and they acted
as sub-agents and recruited other on-line gamblers.
Fang, Yu and the sub-agents took a cut of the gambling money
from the players they introduced, the court said.
Police caught two suspects after they were told last December
about a group of people who were always seen gambling on soccer
games in a bar.
Police seized a laptop from the suspects which helped them
uncover the entire scheme.
The pair soon confessed to the police that they had recruited
gamblers at the bar to bet on games during last summer's World Cup
in Germany.
Police nabbed all 28 people involved in the case within 10 days
and found that the defendants had earned more than 1.15 million
yuan.
(Shanghai Daily August 21, 2007)