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Illegal soccer gambling nets $14.6B each year
By Zuo Likun (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-02-01 15:07

Underground football gambling in China nets about 1 trillion yuan (US$14.65 billion) annually, according to a leading football figure cited by the Jinghua Times.

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Casino owners also pocket a 10 percent cut of the illicit fund thought to be a staggering 100 billion yuan (US$1.46 billion), Zhang Lu, deputy chairman of Beijing Guo'an football club, said at a forum in Beijing on Sunday,

He urged the passage of a lottery bill as one of the many measures to tackle rampant underground gambling.

The latest disclosure put more pressure on the Chinese Super League (CSL) already embattled in bribery and match-fixing scandals, with three top soccer officials held in a crackdown.