All eyes on Germany for China's illegal gamblers

BEIJING, June 9: China's absence from the World Cup finals has not dampened interest in the tournament from the millions of Chinese who enjoy an illegal flutter on the beautiful game.

Gambling has been illegal in mainland China since the Communists took power in 1949 but where lawbreakers may once have been limited to the odd game of mah-jong, the internet has opened up the world of sports betting to anyone with a phone.

A rash of gambling-inspired match-fixing scandals have dogged Chinese Super League in recent years and reduced domestic football to something of laughing stock, a state of affairs not improved by China's miserable showing at the last World Cup and failure to qualify for Germany.

Chinese police, who have launched a crackdown on illicit soccer gambling this year, are still expecting an increase in betting compared to the last World Cup.

It is impossible to know how much is gambled on soccer in China but after breaking up an online betting syndicate in Fujian province in 2004, police estimated the website had attracted 1.70 billion dollar in one month.

In Hong Kong, gambling on football has been legal through the Jockey Club since 2003.

''Football betting has a policy objective of containing illegal gambling,'' Li Taknang, a spokesman for the Hong Kong Jockey Club, said. ''We and the police believe an increasing number of illegal bookmakers are moving away from Hong Kong.'' The Jockey Club turned over 3.44 billion dollar on football gambling in 2004-05 and expects that to rise to nearly 30 billion for 2005-06.

Hong Kong is the main home to the computer servers that cater for those who want to have a punt on whether Trinidad and Tobago can make it past the group stage in Germany, but Macau and Taiwan are also increasingly playing hosts.

Despite China's much publicised censorship of the internet, a quick trawl of the web revealed odds offered on the World Cup finals from the Taiwan-based Xinbao website with a mainland telephone number for punters.

For mainland Chinese without the hardware, skill or inclination to surf the internet, agents for bookmakers accept bets by phone, SMS text message and fax.

The problem is not limited to China, and Hong Kong police have agreed a cooperation deal with their counterparts in Malaysia, Singapore, Guangdong and Macao to battle illegal gambling during the World Cup.

Bookmakers around Asia also offer credit and loans to potential gamblers, often taking brutal reprisals if the debts are not paid.

New Straits Times reported that moneylenders in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur have been distributing flyers emblazoned with the World Cup logo and offering loans of up to 97,000 ringgit -- provided the borrowers return 100,000 ringgit within 15 days.

REUTERS