Chinese Communist Party Using Film To Curb Gambling Habits

It used to be that wealthy Chinese people would travel from their homeland on vacation all the way to Las Vegas, to spend some free time gambling.

Now, the Chinese do not have to go that far to get their gambling fix. That, of course, is do to the rise of the gambling mecca Macau, which recently passed Vegas as the World's largest gaming market.

The Chinese Communist Party is looking to curb the effects of problem gambling by those in its party, and one of the way they are attacking the problem is through a video, which is called "The Evils of Gambling."

The film has several stories that are told of former government officials who fell into gambling oblivion. Lin Longfei, a party secretary is detailed about his order to death for corruption and gambling.

Li Shubiao, as the story is told, sent over $120 million of public housing funds to a bank in Macau, then proceeded to lose over $80 million in gambling casinos there.

Wu Huali, a bureau chief of public security, lost $10 million in public money and was sentenced to 10 years in prison after his 68 trips to Macau.

The government is also making it much tougher on government employees to receive visa for business trips to Macau.

They even have gone as far as monitoring holiday trips that employees are taking, to ensure that money that should be for the public is not being used for individual gambling purposes.

There has been fast growing corruption among high ranking Chinese officials, and the video is a way for the Party to try and curb any future gambling problems.



2007-09-25