China’s government curbed thousands underground gambling dens that were trespassing the long-standing official prohibition on gambling, especially on table games such as roulette, blackjack and poker. Neighboring countries were forced into closing their casinos as well and a special 24 hour hotline was launched to report gamblers and bridle the rules for officials traveling abroad to seek gambling opportunities.
The oblivious operators of a large and prosperous casino seemed unaware that they’ve been under surveillance by the Communist Party for quite awhile. A steady stream of vans was transferring people to the industrial area near the border with Myanmar, despite the late hour. A yellow and somewhat aloof building was welcoming them with the garish pulsing neon lights flower-shaped and a transparent door. The interior, comprised eight banks of roulette tables, electronic blackjack machines flanked against the back wall and 12 pits for a game called heaven-earth-harmony.
The head of the National Public Security Bereau, Zhou Yongkang, said officials are prepared to wage a war on roulette and blackjack gamblers to entirely eradicate these illegal activities. But economic professor, Hu Xingdou, from the Beijing Institute of Technology retorted saying that a more realistic approach should be applied to this matter, since roulette gambling dates far back to Chinese history and is part of the Chinese human nature.
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