China on Sunday launched a three-month crackdown on Internet gambling, with the goal of making the cyber environment a cleaner and safer space.

 

"The prevalence of online gaming has ruined the online environment and damaged the development of the country's youth; it is in direct opposition to our policy of building a harmonious society," said a circular jointly issued by the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Information Industry and the State Press and Publication Administration.

 

Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong and Zhejiang are the focus of supervision efforts, it said, adding that the government should clamp down on online games that involve gambling and online betting. Local government departments should ensure online game service providers are not exchanging "virtual money" with real currencies or properties, or using it to launder money.

 

China's police busted a total of 347,000 gambling cases involving 1.099 million people last year and retrieved 3.56 billion yuan (US$445 million) in illegal revenue, according to official statistics.

 

Gambling was outlawed on the Chinese mainland in 1949 when New China was founded.

 

(Xinhua News Agency February 26, 2007)