Public security authorities launch ‘anti-gambling’ month

Public security authorities have cracked 234,000 cases related to gambling this year, a senior Ministry of Public Security official said on Tuesday.

The number of gambling-related cases in China has fallen in the past two years as public security departments have stepped up efforts to combat criminal activities, Zhang Xiaopeng, deputy director of the ministry's Public Security Management Bureau, said in Shenzhen.

But the rapid development of mobile payment services had spawned new trends in gambling, he cautioned, with illegal activities moving from offline to online and from China to overseas.

"Cross-border online gambling cases are rising year by year, which seriously harms national security and social stability," Zhang said.

Public security departments will step up efforts to combat gambling-related criminal activities, he said, adding that it was also important to prevent and resist them at the grassroots by encouraging the general public to participate in anti-gambling activities.

Lan Liehua, vice-president of Tencent Financial Technology, which monitors financial transactions on the Chinese internet giant's platforms, said the company has set up an intelligent risk-management system to combat online gambling-related crimes by taking advantage of big data and artificial intelligence technologies.

Since the beginning of this year, nearly one million gambling-related transactions had been blocked by the system every day, with the daily value amounting to hundreds of millions of yuan, he said.

Several thousand suspect accounts had been frozen, he added.

To raise public awareness of the harm caused by gambling and urge society to resist and combat such criminal activities, public security authorities launched a national "anti-gambling promotion month" in Shenzhen on Tuesday.

Until Jan 23, public security departments across the country will hold various events, including news conferences and lessons. They will also carry out education campaigns in schools, communities, factories and rural areas.