The Ministry of Public Security has vowed to step up its crackdown on online gambling.

Initial statistics show more than 2,000 foreign and domestic gambling Websites target Chinese gamblers, said Gu Jian, deputy director of the ministry's cyber security bureau.

Gu said online gambling exists in all Chinese provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions to "varying degrees."

Online gambling is common in the Pearl and Yangtze river deltas - China's export-oriented industrial heartland - and the border areas of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Yunnan Province.

Investigations showed most domestic online gambling operations were controlled from abroad. Nearly all major international gambling groups have Chinese-language Websites, and some even send operatives into China to recruit agents.

Police cracked 210 online gambling cases and arrested 918 suspects in the first 13 days of a seven-month campaign to curb online gambling launched on February 8.