BEIJING, March 11 (Xinhuanet) -- Amid public clamors for coping with gambling by officials with public money, 31 lawmakers attending the on-gpomg annual session of the top legislature have set forth a jointly-signed motion for amending the Criminal Law in an effort to mete out still harsher penalty on gambling.

    The jail term for gambling in the current Criminal Law is set for three years. As an growing number of public servants, especially high-ranking officials, are involved in cases of gambling with public money, the lawmakers required the term be extended from current three years to life term, said Niu Xiaoming,one of the 31 deputies to the National People's Congress (NPC).

    The number of major cases involving officials to gamble with public money has given rise to public concern and complaints. The Chinese government launched a nationwide crackdown in January thisyear with its emphasis placed on civil servants who squandered public money in casinos located in neighboring countries.

    In one of such cases, Cai Haowen, an official from Yanbian autonomous prefecture of minority Korean ethnicity in northeastern Jilin Province, was found to defalcate 2.76 million yuan (332,530 US dollars) from his department and borrow another 750,000 yuan (90,360 US dollars) from companies under his supervision from January to November last year.

    Cai made 27 trips to a neighboring nation and squandered all the money in a local casino before absconding on Nov. 19 last year.He was captured on a train last month.

    According to the welfare lottery research institute of prestigious Beijing University, nearly 600 billion yuan (72 billion US dollars) of funds flow to gambling houses or race courses in other countries as well as Hong Kong and Macao every year.

    Li Daoming, an NPC deputy and president of Henan Provincial Higher People's Court, said he had a deep hatred for leading officials who were involved in gambling or even took bribes or embezzled public funds for gambling abroad.

    "By doing so, they will not only ruin their family and social morals, but undermine the authority of the government and tarnish the image of the country," he said.

    In the work report of the Supreme People' Court to the current NPC session, Chief Justice Xiao Yang said his court would give priority to deal with gambling in line with law this year. The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China also stated in mid-January that all Party leaders who involved themselves in gambling would be dismissed and those who go to gamble in casinos outside China would be punished severely.

    According to the latest report of the office in charge of the nationwide crackdown on gambling, 92 of some 160 gambling houses have closed.

    Lu Binghua, director of public security department of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in south China, which neighbors Vietnam, said local authorities had stopped granting visas to Chinese tourists going anywhere beyond the borderline where casinos were operating. Telecommunications service, and waster and electricity supply to these gambling houses were also cut off.

    Meanwhile, Bai Gexiang, head of the Guangxi Branch of the StateAdministration of Foreign Exchange, acknowledged that local banks have beefed up their management of large-sum allocations and ban citizens in the autonomous region from using their bank cards and accounts to pay gambling money for gambling net accounts outside the border.

    The crackdown on gambling was by no means "a flash in the pan,"Lu said. The relevant authorities are thinking of setting up a long-term mechanism to curb Chinese going abroad to gamble, including the practice of conferring with local governments of thecountries concerned where the gambling dens are located. Enditem