A draft amendment to Criminal Law has been submitted to China's top legislature, the National People's Congress Standing Committee, for the first hearing, aiming to intensify crackdown on gambling and commercial bribes.

According to the draft amendment, casino operators may face up to the maximum ten years in prison, in addition to fines, if their casinos were run for profits. In the past, running commercial casino was given at most three years in prison.

Statistics from the Ministry of Public Security showed that from January to September of 2005, China's police authorities busted a total of 313,000 gambling cases.

According to the amendment draft of the Criminal Code, work staffs in hospitals and medical organizations, who take or accept bribes in the process of purchasing medicines or promoting new medicines, will be taken as committing crimes of commercial bribery and be given up to five years or more than five years in prison apart from varying amounts of fines in accordance with severity.

Previously, only work staffs in companies or enterprises, who take bribes, were regarded as committing commercial bribery crimes.

(Xinhua News Agency December 26, 2005)