A Hong Kong man, convicted of running a number of gambling Web sites, on Wednesday was sentenced to eight years in prison and fined 20 million yuan, or US $2.9 million, in southwest China's Yunnan Province, reports China's Xinhua News Agency.
The case involved about 8.68 billion yuan in wagered money and more than 278 million yuan in illegal profits, a spokesperson from the Yunnan High People's Court told the news source.
The man, Tam Chi-wai, set up a gambling house in Myanmar in 1999 and went on to develop an online betting network. According to Chinese law, it is illegal to set up a gambling party or gambling house.
Mr. Chi-wai was originally sentenced in June in the Intermediate People's Court in Kunming, the provincial capital, but after an appeal the provincial high court upheld the sentence.