China News Service, November 29. The Supreme People’s Procuratorate spokesperson Li Xuehui pointed out on the 29th that from January to September 2021, prosecutors across the country prosecuted 63,238 people for the crime of opening casinos, an increase of 40% year-on-year, with a clear upward trend.

Data map: Supreme People's Procuratorate.

Photo by China News Agency reporter Li Huisi

  On the 29th, the Supreme Procuratorate held a press conference on "Performing procuratorial functions in accordance with the law and severely punishing crimes of opening casinos" to inform the relevant situation and release typical cases of procuratorial organs to punish crimes of opening casinos.

  Li Xuehui pointed out at the meeting that gambling not only harms social order, affects production, work and life, but also often induces other crimes.

Gambling crimes mainly include the crime of gambling, the crime of opening a casino, and the crime of organizing participation in gambling outside the country (border) newly added by the Criminal Law Amendment (11).

Judging from the case handling by procuratorial organs, the crime of opening a casino accounted for more than 80% of the prosecuted gambling crimes. Internet gambling has become the main form of crime. The crime chain is long, there are many people involved, and the characteristics of criminal syndication are prominent.

  Miao Shengming, member of the Procuratorate Committee of the Supreme People's Procuratorate and Director of the First Procuratorate, notified the procuratorial organs to perform their functions in accordance with the law and severely punish the crimes of opening casinos.

  Miao Shengming pointed out that some overseas casinos and online gambling regard Chinese citizens as the main targets for gambling and gambling, and the crime of new casino openings is high.

Compared with traditional crimes, there have been new changes in the behavior and performance of this type of crime. Criminals often use various names to rely on casinos in neighboring countries and regions to bet and suck gambling against Chinese citizens, organize Chinese citizens to go abroad for gambling, and participate abroad. Some of the gambling personnel have a huge amount of betting, causing a huge outflow of funds; some use the black and gray industry in the Internet field to migrate traditional gambling to the Internet, and commit the crime of opening a casino in the name of chess and card games, grabbing huge economic benefits, and endangering me Economic security; some use overseas casinos to set up traps to commit extortion, kidnapping, fraud and other crimes in the name of organizing overseas gambling; some gambling personnel take risks to commit other crimes due to huge gambling debts, endangering the safety and stability of our society; some Chinese citizens participate in overseas casino gambling and online gambling, which affects the image of Chinese citizens.

  According to Miao Shengming, from the data on the crime of opening casinos handled by the procuratorial organs, comparing the average number of cases handled from January to September this year with the three-year period from 2018 to 2020, procuratorial organs across the country accepted 24,039 arrests and arrested 52,422 people, an increase of 22.85%. And 14.18%; 18,739 arrests of 36,780 persons were approved, an increase of 17.79% and 6.4%; 29,870 cases of 74,104 persons were accepted for review and prosecution, an increase of 46% and 33.26%; 25,140 cases of indictment were filed, 63,238 persons, an increase of 49.27% ​​and 45.71%.

These data show that there is a high incidence of crimes of opening casinos.

  Miao Shengming released a set of data on the cases of procuratorial organs handling the opening of casinos in recent years.

According to statistics, from 2018 to September this year, procuratorial organs across the country accepted 104,642 arrests, 2,340,95 people, approved 81,480 arrests of 171,121 people; accepted 114,895 prosecutions, 305,553 people, and filed 98,069, 255,850 public prosecutions.

The large number of cases also reflects the overall crime situation of such cases.

  Miao Shengming stated that in order to severely crack down on such crimes in accordance with the law, the Criminal Law Amendment (11) that came into effect on March 1 this year amended Article 303 of the Criminal Law, and the legal maximum penalty for the crime of opening a casino was changed from the original one. The fixed-term imprisonment was 3 years, which was increased to 5 years, and a new provision was added for organizing and participating in the crime of gambling outside the country (border).

In response to the current high incidence of criminal gambling cases, the Supreme Procurator has carefully studied the characteristics of new types of crimes such as casino opening crimes and the application of law, instructed national prosecutors to perform their procuratorial functions in accordance with the law, and insisted on severely punishing the crime of opening casinos in accordance with the law.

  Miao Shengming also introduced the new features of the current casino crime and case handling:

  First, compared with other crimes, the crime of opening a casino involves more factors outside the country (border).

"The main manifestation is that overseas gambling criminal groups use high returns as the temptation to develop our domestic personnel to become agents. The agent organizes our domestic citizens to go abroad to gamble, and to evade crackdowns, the server is placed overseas, and the Internet is used to invite gambling and gambling in our territory. , The implementation of online casino crime. According to the case data, from January to September this year, the prosecutors throughout the country prosecuted 13,329 foreign-related crimes (foreign-related crimes, Hong Kong and Macao-related crimes), of which 1,376 were crimes of opening casinos, accounting for the proportion 10.32%, second only to the crime of illegally crossing the border."

  The second is that the new type of casino crime is highly deceptive and concealed.

Our country has always adhered to the policy of prohibiting gambling, and the Criminal Law, Public Security Administration Penalty Law, etc. have made relevant regulations on gambling violations and crimes.

However, in order to capture huge illegal profits, some of them use overseas casinos under the guise of legal gambling abroad to vigorously develop our domestic personnel to become casino agents, and organize our domestic citizens to gamble abroad through agents; some use online chess and cards. Such software and APP are packaged, and in the form of entertainment, rebates, etc., gambling and gambling are used to trick others into the trap of gambling step by step.

At the same time, because gambling occurs overseas, or on the Internet in the name of entertainment or games, the form of crime is more hidden, which also brings certain difficulties to the judicial authorities to crack down and punish such crimes.

  The third is the long chain of crimes, the large number of people involved, and the obvious tendency to syndicate crimes.

In the new type of casino crime, criminals make full use of information and network technology to develop relevant software and platform development, the connection between casinos, agents and gamblers, the promotion and promotion of casinos, the implementation of gambling activities, and the settlement of gambling funds after gambling. The division of labor and the cooperation of different personnel use different channels to conduct gambling activities. The crime chain is long, there are many people involved, the division of labor in each link is clear, the characteristics of criminal syndication are obvious, and multiple crimes are accompanied. At the same time, the judicial organs The related criminal evidence collection work and fact determination bring difficulties.

  Fourth, crimes involve a wide area, with great social impact and serious harm.

Compared with the traditional crime of opening a casino only in one place, the new type of casino crime, especially the use of the Internet to open a casino, promote it on the Internet, solicit gambling, has a large number of people participating in gambling, often all over the country.

Judging from the situation of the relevant cases, some of the gambling websites seized had hundreds of thousands of registered members, and some involved several provinces or even various provincial-level regions across the country.

The collection, retrieval, review and determination of relevant evidence by judicial organs are difficult, demanding, and work-intensive.

Gambling crimes caused direct and significant property losses to gambling participants, and the enterprises they founded went bankrupt, and even the wealth accumulated for most of their lives was wasted, leading to treason and separation, and some also led to other crimes.

At the same time, this type of crime will also cause a huge outflow of funds, affect the national economic security, and affect the image of the Chinese people.

Many gambling crimes are also accompanied by crimes such as online fraud, extortion, illegal detention, and illegal crossing of the country (border), which seriously affect social order and endanger the personal and property safety of Chinese citizens.

  Miao Shengming requested that, based on the procuratorial function, accurately apply the law, and severely punish the crime of opening casinos in accordance with the law.

  The first is to strengthen research and guidance, focusing on cracking down on cross-border gambling crimes.

The Supreme People’s Procuratorate attaches great importance to the fight against cross-border gambling, and conducts special research on the current crime situation, law of crime, criminal characteristics, law application, criminal policy and other issues of the current casino opening, ensuring accurate identification of criminal facts, and precise cracking down on the crime of opening casinos in accordance with the law; The research and formulation of legislation and related legal documents related to gambling crimes, and put forward relevant opinions and suggestions on the amendments to Article 303 of the Criminal Law in the Criminal Law Amendment (11) of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, and combined with relevant departments The current new situation of casino opening crimes has been studied and issued "Opinions on Several Issues Concerning Handling Cross-border Gambling Crime Cases" to provide legal advice for localities to punish casino opening crimes in accordance with the law; in light of the high incidence of gambling crimes, the issue is issued to key areas The "Notice on Actively Participating in the Fight against Cross-border Gambling and Severely Cracking Down on Cross-border Gambling Crimes in accordance with the Law", deployed local procuratorial organs to fight against cross-border gambling, and put forward clear work requirements.

  The second is to give full play to the advantages of the integrated procuratorial system and severely punish the crime of opening casinos in accordance with the law.

In view of the current characteristics of the crime of opening casinos, for key cases involving overseas, criminal groups, and trans-regional processing, the national prosecutors give full play to the advantages of procuratorial integration, and list and supervise the 14 series of casino opening cases involving 16 provincial-level regions. In handling cases, local procuratorial organs have further strengthened overall planning and coordination, handled cases strictly in accordance with the law, and severely cracked down on the crime of opening casinos in accordance with the law to ensure the unity of political, legal, and social effects of the case.

Provincial-level procuratorates strengthened guidance for a series of cross-regional cases. For example, when the Zhejiang Provincial Procuratorate guides the handling of a series of cross-provincial gambling crime cases, it combines the characteristics of the large number of people involved, deploys prosecutors across regions, and strengthens the handling of cases; Shaanxi; In guiding the handling of the "Jiruicai" series of online gambling cases, the Provincial Procuratorate has strengthened research in response to the fact that the case was handled by 9 primary-level prosecutors at the same time, unified the evidence standards for approving arrests and prosecutions to ensure the quality of case handling; Guangdong Provincial Procuratorate is in When guiding the handling of the "Yabo Sports" online gambling series of cases, in response to the fact that the case was handled by 26 procuratorates in 9 prefectures and cities, the provincial courts ensured a total of 283 key cases by formulating case handling guidelines and on-site observation and trial guidance. The effect of handling.

  In handling casino opening cases, procuratorial organs in various regions give full play to their procuratorial and supervisory functions and severely punish casino opening crimes in accordance with the law. From January to September this year, procuratorial organs across the country investigated and supervised a total of 369 cases, corrected 1833 missed arrests, and corrected them. 610 people were transferred to prosecute omission crimes, 2068 people were corrected omission accomplices, 1,308 cases of illegal investigation activities were corrected in writing, and 233 protests were filed.

  The third is to adhere to the criminal policy of both leniency and strictness to ensure the effectiveness of the handling of criminal cases of opening casinos.

While severely punishing the crime of opening casinos in accordance with the law, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate has jointly issued the "Notice on Urging Criminal Suspects in Cross-border Gambling to surrender" in response to the new characteristics of the current crime of opening casinos, and is concerned that there are still chances to engage in gambling abroad. Criminals clarify the policy, and those who voluntarily return to China to explain the situation and accept punishment will be given lighter and mitigated punishments in accordance with the law; local procuratorial organs adhere to the criminal policy of combining leniency and strictness when handling cases, and adopt the system of confessing guilt and admitting punishment and detention Necessity review and other measures, for proactive surrenders, truthful confession of crimes, sincere confession and repentance, as well as criminal suspects who play a key role in the detection and identification of major cross-border gambling crimes. , The sentencing recommendations for mitigating punishments, for the principal offenders who set up casinos, organizers of gambling criminal groups, and key members of the gambling criminal group, the courts are recommended to punish severely and severely in accordance with the law.

  Miao Shengming stated that from January to September this year, the procuratorial organs did not approve or not decide to arrest 14,786 people when handling casino crimes. The non-arrest rate was 28.67%, and 4041 people were not prosecuted. The system of plea guilty and punished was applied to 58482. People, accounting for 88.37% of the number of people who have been reviewed and prosecuted in the same period, 53,911 people were declared and sentenced to open a casino in the first instance, of which 47,557 were sentenced to less than 3 years (including 3 years), accounting for 88.21% of the total number of people who were declared and sentenced by the court in the same period.

  Miao Shengming pointed out that in the next step, procuratorial organs will continue to base their procuratorial functions, perform their duties in accordance with the law, and continue to strengthen research on the laws of new gambling crimes and the application of laws; actively participate in social governance, and work with relevant departments to strengthen entry and exit management and Promote the construction of the rule of law in cyberspace, rectify the black and gray industry chain of the Internet, purify the cyberspace, so that gambling crimes have nowhere to hide "online" and "offline"; increase the prevention of new casino crimes, and pass case interpretation Reasonable, publicity reveals the harm of gambling crimes, guide the people to identify gambling crimes in a timely manner, and create a good atmosphere in the whole society to say "no" to gambling.