The Supreme People's Court (SPC) pledged Friday to show no mercy in punishing gamblers and preventing gambling by depriving gamblers of all their illegal gains.

"Heavy fines will be given to these offenders to deprive them of all their illegal gains from gambling," said Gao Jinghong, a SPC judge. The maximum Chinese prison term for gambling is three years.

According to a national anti-gambling office, gambling groups and organizers of sports betting, horse races and other games on the Chinese mainland will be severely punished.

People who work in state-owned organizations who gamble and those who use bribes, public money or embezzled funds for gambling are also major targets of the clamp down.

China banned gambling, along with prostitution and drugs, in the 1950s. In recent years, however, a growing number of wealthy Chinese, especially corrupt officials, are gambling away millions in casinos outside the Chinese mainland.

The SPC, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Ministry of Public Security are jointly investigating 22 gambling cases, including 13 online gambling cases, two cases involving Party and government officials and state-owned organization chiefs, and two cases in which Chinese citizens who gambled in foreign casinos.

China's anti-gambling campaign had by January broken up more than 1,900 gambling cases and forced more than 80 casinos and small gambling houses in the neighboring countries out of business.

Casino gambling remains legal in Macao, which was returned to China from Portugal in 1999.

Source: Xinhua