Twenty suspects in arguably the country's biggest online gambling case, involving 6.6 billion yuan ($966 million), stood trial in Shanghai yesterday.

Qian Baochun, 41, Zou Jun, 45, Liu Biqing, 43 - the three main defendants - and 17 others, accused of organized gambling, pleaded guilty at the Shanghai Putuo District People's Court.

They are expected to face up to 10 years in prison.

According to the indictment, Qian, Zou and Liu, the prime accused, made more than "1.6 billion yuan" from the illegal business.

Qian told the court that the gang started its business in the summer of 2006, when the soccer World Cup in Germany was in progress.

Qian and Zou are major soccer fans, the Shanghai Youth Daily reported yesterday.

"I was drinking with Zou and Liu in a bar and someone mentioned that online soccer gambling can get good money. That's when I suggested we open accounts on gambling websites and work as agents," the paper quoted Qian as saying.

Qian, Zou and Liu opened accounts on three overseas gambling websites and began to attract agents and gamblers. The trio received a fixed monthly pay from the overseas websites, commission from the website's profits as well as from their agents and gamblers' betting stake at 0.2 to 0.5 percent, the indictment said.

Qian claimed most profits went to their agents.

Qian even hired people to maintain accounts, it said.

By July 2007, the trio's gamblers and agents had bet more than 6 billion yuan on one of the three websites, it said.

Though all 200 suspects pleaded guilty to the charges, some of them claimed they had quit the business long ago when they realized it was illegal and dangerous, according to the testimony.

The court has not reached a verdict yet.

Cases of online gambling have been on the up since 2005.

In September 2005, Shanghai Yangpu District People's Court heard an online soccer gambling case involving 150 million yuan.

(China Daily January 20, 2009)