State media accounts trumpeted early results achieved in a test phase of the crackdown last month in Yunnan province, bringing to an end an implicit tolerance of casinos set up just across many of its international borders.

According to government television network CCTV, the crackdown has forced 84 casinos along borders with Burma, Laos and Vietnam to close. Xinhua provided a more nuanced account, saying 68 casinos have shut and another 14 were on the verge of closure. A provincial public security official said his department had detained casino bosses, cut off phone, water and power connections, shut down reception centers in Yunnan and restricted border crossings by suspected staff and customers.

As the casinos depended solely on business from China because domestic regulations banned gambling, these measures choked off their cash flow.

The official told CCTV that Vietnam's casinos were harder to target because the government there had invested in the casinos and provided utility connections. Nevertheless, he said, two major casinos targeting Chinese customers had closed due to pressure from tightened border controls, without naming the establishments.

CCTV reported the Emperor Hotel and Casino, just over China's border with North Korea and owned by Albert Yeung's Emperor Group, had not been affected by the crackdown.

An unnamed source familiar with the casino was quoted by CCTV as saying it would be difficult to cut off the source of Emperor's customers because of the company's background.

Also potentially in jeopardy is a casino that mainland tycoon Xu Rongmao recently announced he would build across China's border with Russia.

An official from the China's Ministry of Public Security estimated about 200 casinos operate along the country's borders. Vice-Minister of Public Security Bai Jingfu said: ``We will squeeze the space in which border casinos operate.''

Bai said the government would block Chinese banks from setting up ATMs or offering other services on the borders and would also block payment by credit card or bank transfer to gambling websites.

Bai said officials would not harass small-stakes mahjong or poker players. However, he made no mention of whether mainlanders gambling in Macau would fall within the scope of the crackdown.

Top officials from Wynn Resorts and Greek Mythology Casino said they believe the crackdown would target gambling trips by government and party officials, not ordinary citizens. ``I don't think it will have a major impact on Macau,'' Wynn Resorts Macau general manager Grant Bowie said.

The crackdown is partly targeted at illegal gambling within the mainland. News outlets this week carried stories about police breaking up rings illicitly trading in Mark Six lottery tickets and operating underground casinos and gambling websites.

Last Tuesday, Minister for Public Security Zhou Yongkang announced a crackdown on gambling, saying the practice had ``seriously undermined socio-economic development and fundamental interests of the people.''

zach.coleman@globalchina.com