A crackdown on Chinese citizens who gamble outside the country is putting the squeeze on foreign casinos around China's northern borders.

"In the first five months alone, 102 foreign casinos near the Chinese border have closed for lack of business. The remaining casinos are finding it hard to continue operating," an official with China's Ministry of Public Security said yesterday at a conference on overseas gambling activities in Kunming, capital of Southwest China's Yunnan Province.

He said the ministry has taken a range of measures, including seriously punishing participants, closing the agencies of foreign casinos in China, and busting underground "banks" that aid overseas gambling activities.

The ministry has cracked some major cases, he said. In one of the cases, Cai Haowen, head of the Transport Administration of Yanbian Prefecture in Northeast China's Jilin Province, was found to have embezzled a huge amount of public funds for his gambling habit.

"We have closed 30 agencies for overseas casinos and 19 underground banks so far this year," he said.

The problem of Chinese involvement in gambling activities has been brought under "effective control," he said.

 (Xinhua news Agency December 2, 2005)