Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China

Article 303 (2) Crime of Opening a Casino

Whoever opens a casino shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, criminal detention or public surveillance and shall also be fined; If the circumstances are serious, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than 10 years and shall also be fined.

paraphrase

The crime of opening a casino refers to the act of opening a place for others to gamble under the control of a person who is the center of the act. As for the establishment of a temporary casino or a long-term casino, it does not affect the establishment of this crime. In other words, the so-called opening of a casino means operating a casino.

According to the Opinions of the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Ministry of Public Security on Several Issues concerning the Application of the Law to the Handling of Online Gambling Crime Cases on August 31, 2010, hereinafter referred to as the Opinions, the use of the Internet, mobile communication terminals, etc., to transmit gambling videos, data, and organize gambling activities under any of the following circumstances, (1) Establishing a gambling website and accepting bets; (2) Establishing a gambling website and providing it to others to organize gambling; (3) acting as an agent for a gambling website and accepting bets; (4) Participating in gambling website profit sharing.

Although the act of opening a casino is in fact generally for the purpose of profit, the criminal law does not stipulate the purpose of profit as an element of liability. According to the above "Opinions", knowing that it is a gambling website, and providing the following services or help for it, is a joint crime of opening a casino, and shall be punished in accordance with the provisions of Article 303, paragraph 2 of the Criminal Law: (1) Providing Internet reception, server hosting, network storage space, communication transmission channels, advertising, membership development, software development, technical support and other services for gambling websites, and charging a service fee of more than 20,000 yuan; (2) providing fund payment and settlement services for gambling websites, charging service fees of more than 10,000 yuan or helping to collect gambling funds of more than 200,000 yuan; (3) Placing advertisements related to the website, ****** and other information for more than 10 gambling websites or placing more than 100 advertisements for gambling websites. In any of the following circumstances, the perpetrator shall be deemed to have "knowingly" committed the act, except where there is evidence to prove that he did not know: (1) after receiving a written notification from the competent administrative authority, he still commits the act; (2) Providing Internet reception, server hosting, network storage space, communication transmission channel, advertising, software development, technical support, fund payment and settlement services for gambling websites, and charging service fees is obviously abnormal; (3) Intentionally circumvent investigation or tip off criminal suspects by destroying or modifying data or account books during investigation by law enforcement personnel; (4) Other evidence to prove that the perpetrator knew.

One practice in judicial practice is that for mainland personnel who contract or participate in the operation of Macao casinos or other overseas casinos for profit purposes, and organize or solicit mainland personnel to gamble in the casinos they contract or participate in, they will also be investigated for criminal responsibility under the crime of opening casinos in accordance with the criminal Law of our country. The basic reason is that the behavior of opening casinos is a composite behavior, including the organization and solicitation of gambling personnel implemented in the mainland. However, the simple organization and solicitation of others to gamble abroad is not the implementation of the crime of opening a casino. Even from an objective point of view, people who set up casinos overseas often recruit gamblers in the Mainland, this is just a fact, and objective facts cannot be imposed on the norms of criminal law. When the sub-provisions of the criminal law only regard the establishment of a casino as a crime, the act of soliciting gamblers cannot be regarded as the act of this crime. On the other hand, if the act of soliciting gamblers is regarded as the implementation of the crime of setting up a casino, then those who set up a casino in the territory, but did not organize and solicit gamblers, their behavior does not fully meet the constitutive requirements of the crime of setting up a casino. But this conclusion is not only against the provisions of criminal law, but also difficult to be accepted.

According to the provisions of Article 303, paragraph 2, of the Criminal Law, whoever commits the crime of opening a casino shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, criminal detention or public surveillance and shall also be fined; If the circumstances are serious, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than 10 years and shall also be fined. According to the above "Opinions", the establishment of a casino with one of the following circumstances, should be identified as "serious circumstances ": (1) the cumulative amount of tapping fishing profits reached 30,000 yuan or more; (2) The amount of gambling accumulated reaches 300,000 yuan or more; (3) The total number of participants reaches 120 or more; (4) After the establishment of a gambling website by providing gambling organizations to others, the illegal income of more than 30,000 yuan; (5) Participating in the profit sharing of gambling websites, and the amount of illegal income is more than 30,000 yuan; (6) Recruiting a subordinate agent for a gambling website, and the subordinate agent accepts bets; (7) Soliciting minors to participate in online gambling; (8) Other serious circumstances.