Illegal casino case begins in SW China

KUNMING - An illegal gambling ring involving 30 suspects went on trial at a court in southwest China's Yunnan Province on Monday.

Wang Lijuan and 29 other suspects were tried at the Qilin District People's Court in Qujing City for running casinos, offering places for other people to open gambling houses, and helping others open casinos, according to the Qilin District People's Procuratorate.

Wang set up Kunming Tangcheng Entertainment Ltd., a joint venture company, in 2005. She and 29 others then set up gambling machines, dice, cards and mahjong in three branches of the company, fronting their operation with catwalk shows and performances from 2009 to October 2014, the court said.

Each member of the group operated several casinos or participated in the operation of casinos, according to the procuratorate. Among them, Wang operated 16 casinos while suspect Ye Chengfang operated 13. Xu Jia opened three casinos and collected fees from other gambling houses for Wang.

It is alleged that the group raked in 43 million yuan (nearly 7 million U.S. dollars) from their illegal business.

The procuratorate charged them with "operating gambling houses" and Wang was accused of serving as the ringleader of the group.

The trial will last for four days, the court said.