Sunday, February 06, 2005
China nabs official who lost big in North Korea casino
Sun February 6, 2005 6:17 PM GMT+05:30
BEIJING (Reuters) - China arrested a government official on Sunday who had fled after losing 3.5 million yuan ($423,000) in public funds and borrowed money to gambling at a casino in a North Korea border area, state media reported.
The arrest of Cai Haowen followed a high-profile manhunt and the closure of the Hong Kong-built Emperor Hotel and Casino in a free trade zone of North Korea, across the river from China's Jiling province, where Cai is reported to have gambled.
"Cai is now on the way back to Jilin," the official Xinhua news agency quoted a public security official as saying.
Xinhua said Cai was nabbed on Sunday morning on a train between Beijing and Changchun, the capital of the northeastern province of Jilin.
The Ministry of Public Security said on its Web site (www.mps.gov.cn) that Cai misused the funds between February and November of 2004, taking advantage of his position as transportation chief of the Yanbian border region with North Korea.
Cai was also expelled from the party and relieved from his post.
The Communist Party outlawed gambling, along with prostitution and drugs, after it came to power in 1949, but the vices have made a comeback as state controls have loosened and market reforms taken root.
China has detained about 15,000 people suspected of gambling offences since it began a crackdown against the vice last November, part of a wider fight against corruption.
Chinese citizens have also been blocked from placing bets at casinos just over its borders, and the government has cut off power, water and communications to the casinos themselves in its drive to curb the gambling habits of high-rolling officials.
