``Gambling ban the new battleground in fight against corruption,'' the People's Daily said in a headline topping an entire page devoted to the subject.

``Gambling has reached such frightening proportions that it cannot be ignored,'' the paper said.

The Beijing Morning Post reported police in Beijing had unveiled an online gambling racket with stakes reaching a total of 235 million yuan (HK$221.56 million).

Another example given was Cai Haowen, a transport official near China's border with North Korea.

Cai went to the country 27 times last year, allegedly gambling away 3.5 million yuan in mostly public money, according to media reports.

He was far from being the only official going overseas to bet away government money, according to estimates. Peking University's China Center for Lottery Studies believes about 600 billion yuan flows out of the country in gambling stakes every year, according to a recent Xinhua report.

That is equivalent to more than one-third the total increment in China's foreign exchange reserves last year.

Beijing is at a loss to find ways to battle the growing trend for officials to go abroad to gamble, the People's Daily suggested.

It carried an opinion piece by criminology specialist Qu Xuewu arguing that issues of foreign nations' sovereignty make it hard to use traditional, not-too-subtle tactics to crack down on gambling overseas, such as shutting down operators.

``The best way is a multipronged approach, combining legal, political, economical and moral measures,'' Chinese Academy of Social Sciences member Qu said.

``But among these, legal means, and in particular criminal legal means, will be key.''