A receptionist at the Li Lai International Hotel in Mong Cai, Vietnam said on Tuesday that the Li Lai casino has closed indefinitely. The general manager of the casino hotel could not be reached for comment.

Vietnamese press reports say the casino is a joint venture between Li Lai Entertainment of Hong Kong and a local company, but there is no Li Lai Entertainment registered in the SAR.

Beijing's crackdown, launched three weeks ago, has taken aim at the 200-odd casinos set up across China's northern and southern frontiers.

CCTV reported on Tuesday that Guangxi police found explosives and other weapons in raids on a training center and a customer-finance office operated by Li Lai on the Chinese side of the border. Officers seized three cars used to shuttle guests across the border and froze the accounts used to transfer payments.

The casino hotel was developed in 1999 at a cost of US$50 million (HK$390 million), according to a staff recruitment listing still posted on a Guangxi province government website.

Xinhua News Agency reported the casino generates 800 million yuan (HK$754.2 million) in annual profit.

Beijing's gambling crackdown came after the discovery in December of a transport official from the northeastern prefecture of Yanbian who took 3.5 million yuan (HK$3.3 million) in public funds to wager in North Korea at the Emperor Hotel & Casino, owned by Hong Kong entertainment tycoon Albert Yeung.

The Emperor Casino closed on January 15, ostensibly for open-ended renovations, but Chinese state media reports indicate continuing police pressure.

State broadcaster CCTV this week reported that police had sealed the casino's representative office in the border town of Yanji and froze 11 bank accounts linked to the office or its staff. Emperor Group spokeswoman Maggie Poon said the casino's management could not be reached.

CCTV's report on Tuesday also said Guangxi police had raided two hotels and a company in a border trade zone in Pingxiang, linking them to the New Qing Casino in Vietnam, seizing gambling equipment and chips with a face value of 2.5 million yuan and arresting 50 people, including three dealers. CCTV said the casino has now closed.

Official Chinese press reports have tallied the closure of at least 70 casinos in districts bordering Guangxi and Yunnan provinces. The Beijing Evening News reported over the weekend that 84 casinos have closed in areas bordering northeastern Heilongjiang province, but that 62 remain open.

The police have also been busting betting parlors inside the country. On Tuesday, Xinhua reported a raid by Liaoning province police on a 1,500-square-meter casino in the northeastern town of Haicheng, near Shenyang, with 82 gambling machines.

The casino had operated for two years and had a staff of 20. Police arrested 91 people.

Haicheng's public security chief and two other officials were sacked over their failure to shut down the casino earlier, the report said.