Shanghai police yesterday warned local entertainment or catering businesses against any gambling practices related to the World Cup.

Police said they would continue their efforts to stop online soccer gambling schemes or small gambling parties at local pubs or teahouses.

In China, gamblers can be detained up to 15 days and fined up to 3,000 yuan (US$370).

Betting organizers or professional gamblers face imprisonment of up to three years and a fine.

In recent years, local police have disrupted several online betting gangs, whose leaders are Shanghai natives aided by overseas accomplices.

For example, city police allege an online soccer gambling ring they cracked last April collaborated with a Taiwan-based soccer gambling Website.

The betting network covered 22 provinces and municipalities across the country and the group raked in millions of yuan from June to November in 2004. Police seized 24 suspects in the ring and 1.03 million yuan in wagered money and 14 computers.

In another case in October 2005, Yangpu District police detained 12 members involved in an online soccer gambling case in which punters are alleged to have bet 150 million yuan.

The gang leaders, two local residents surnamed Shi and Xu, applied to be a local agency for gambling Websites such as a Taiwan-based Baoying Website in 2003.

After they got the username and code, they allegedly recruited a great number of online gamblers from August 2003 and earned more than 100,000 yuan by last May.

Gambling has also been implicated in criminal cases involving theft and embezzlement.

At the end of 2005 a local court sentenced Han Yuchuan to death, with a reprieve of two years, for killing his wife during an argument over his soccer gambling debts.

Han, a 39-year-old Beijing native, killed his wife by hitting her head with a hammer on March 11, 2005. The couple had often argued because Han had lost almost all their savings in soccer gambling.

Recently, Minhang District Prosecutor's Office has handled another soccer gambling case and alleged a cell phone chain store manager, surnamed Kang, appropriated business funds worth more than 100,000 yuan on soccer gambling.