After incurring a series of court trials, the decision to imprison Gu Lianbao for two-and-a-half years, as well as pay 30,000 yen in fines for operating an illegal online betting site in China was upheld.  Beginning in October '05, Gu will begin to serve his sentence, which was originally passed by the Beijing Xicheng District People's Court.

In late 2004, Beijing Police began to concentrate efforts to stop Chinese citizens from gambling at what they thought were the best online casinos and sportsbooks.  This task force included investigations on those who were operating online casino gambling websites, as well as those who were gambling at online casinos.

Hundreds of arrests were made as a result, with several illegal gambling rings being brought down in the process.  By December, plice were hot on the case Lianbao, whose online casino website handled a total of 600 million yen (equivalent to $74 million).  It seems that Lianbao was keeping detailed financial records, but could not say just how many online gamblers used his website to place bets.

Although Lianbao's sentence weems harsh to those who gamble at online casinos in legalized jurisdictions, his wentence could have been much more severe if Lianbao did not plead guilty to the charges.