Online gambling is clearly one of the largest businesses on the web. Even with legal restraints and government curbs, the industry is flourishing and the resources - gamblers, players, big and small - seem never to run out, only grow even more.

While the focus is by and large on the US, European and other western markets, online gamblers and casinos operate in the rest of the world as well. In fact, they operate sometimes against the laws in certain countries.

Such was the case with an organization, active in China, where online gambling is illegal. The group, 32 members of which were arrested and charged with involvement in illegal online gambling, is said to have operated a business worth billions of yuan.

Even at the currency rate of about 8:1, the sum comes out to about 773 million dollars. Ringleaders, currently suspect principal offenders, Yang Xu and Wang Jun, have still not had charges pressed against them, as is the case with eight others.

The two, Yang Xu and Wang Jun, are a married couple who supposedly started the business in 2005, first as a small group of online gamblers, then obviously growing considerably greater. The gang itself numbered 100 people two years after starting.

The Chinese police released the following statement: "The prevalence of online gambling has ruined the online environment and harmed young people's growth, which runs against the policy of building a harmonious society." With nearly 6 billion yuan passing hands, there are enough Chinese who would challenge this statement. But that is, as Yang and Wang can tell us, illegal.