A total of 620 underground lottery outlets have been destroyed in southern China's Guangdong Province during a month-long crack down on gambling, which ended at the weekend.

And police across the province also smashed 149 gambling gangs, detaining 3,291 suspects, according to an official from the Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Public Security.

The suspects include bankers and gamblers from the bordering Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions and Taiwan Province, the official said yesterday.

Police are also looking into 144 cases relating to illegal lotteries, dealing a heavy blow to the province's underground gambling culture.

The cases are mainly related to the cities of Guangzhou, Zhongshan, Shenzhen, Meizhou, Jieyang, Yunfu, Dongguan, Shantou, Zhaoqing, Chaozhou, Heyuan, Huizhou and Zhanjiang in the prosperous province.

Most cities in the province have established special task forces over the past month to focus on gambling related events, the unnamed official said.

Since the campaign started in mid-July, three cars, 18 fax machines, 18 photocopiers and a large number of computers, printers and mobile phones, in addition to other items connected with gambling, have been seized. About 2.64 million yuan (US$318,072) in cash has been impounded.

On August 13, Shenzhen police raided a gang in the city's Bao'an and Luohu districts.

A total of 26 suspects were detained and two lottery outlets were destroyed.

Earlier on July 24, Zhaoqing police hit a lottery outlet in the city business district, detaining 10 suspects.

A large amount of cash, used to back the gambling operation, fax machines and computers were seized.

According to sources, the provincial sting has made significant gains in the fight against illegal gambling and helped bring the active lottery network under control.

The public security official said police will continue to keep the pressure on illegal gambling operations and the people who run them.

(China Daily August 21, 2003)