NINETEEN people were jailed for one to three years after being convicted of organizing and developing online gambling software by a Yantian court Wednesday.

    Seven members face jail terms of 14 months to three-and-a-half years for organizing gambling operations, while the rest would spend 13 to 18 months in jail for gambling, Shenzhen Evening News reported.

    The court said the three main members of the ring, including two surnamed Zeng and Chen, had seriously violated the law by opening gambling Web sites. Four others helped them with daily operations. The rest also broke the law by helping others gamble.

    They had yet to decide whether to appeal to a higher court, the newspaper said.

    Shenzhen Winning Goal Gambling Group was run by a Hong Kong man surnamed Ng. The group organized professional teams to provide technological support to an online gambling Web site, also owned by the group, and developed gambling software to help analyze gambling data and determine commission charges.

    They also hired people to help them introduce gamblers and collect gambling takings, the newspaper said.

    Guangdong police found the Web site had organized many gambling activities in the province in 2010, including gambling on sports such as soccer, basketball and tennis. The Web site was operated under a pyramid structure. Between 2007 and 2010, more than 100 billion yuan (US$15.38 billion) in gambling stakes had been paid to the Web site.

    A total of 278 suspects were caught in seven cities in the province, including Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Shantou, Foshan, Dongguan and Zhongshan in 2010, the newspaper said.

    Shenzhen police arrested 33 suspects in June last year and 175,800 yuan and HK$66,500 (US$8,636) had been confiscated. More than 8 million yuan in more than 300 bank accounts was frozen. (Wang Yuanyuan)