China enforces anti-gambling laws

Reports from Beijing indicate that the National People's Congress (NPC) the country's top legislature, has been asked for a bill to prohibit gambling.

The proposal was submitted by legislator Luo Yifeng, who called for government and company chiefs to be made special targets and for heavier penalties to be introduced in any future crackdown.

"A new, special law banning gambling, with heavier penalties meted out to violators, is a lasting solution to prohibit gambling," the politician claimed.

However, China's gamb-busters and legal experts, whilst agreeing on harder strikes, say they prefer amending or changing judicial interpretations of current statutes to creating new anti-gambling legislation.

The current Criminal Law of the country, enacted in 1979 and amended since, sets a maximum punishment for gambling of three years in jail.

These penalties are seen by some as too lenient when considering that many cases involve millions of yuan and often corrupt social morals, Luo said.

Casinos and other gambling activities have caused a chain of social problems, and participation of officials and State firm executives has increased corruption and led to a loss of State assets, and it was imperative that the law be given more of a "deterrent effect," Luo said.

The anti-gambling campaign office under the Ministry of Public Security yesterday said the relevant clause of China's criminal code was too weak to deal with the situation in the country and outside its immediate borders.

Chu Huaizhi, a senior law expert at Peking University, said he has participated in a workshop sponsored recently by the Supreme People's Court and Supreme People's Procuratorate, which sought to make some judicial interpretations on Article 303 of China's Criminal Law.