Ma said that 888Crown, which is based overseas, has representatives all over Chinese mainland.

"Security is guaranteed 100 percent," said Ma, addressing concerns that police might find out about the business. "We change the server all the time, they'll never catch us."

Most illegal gambling groups are structured like pyramid schemes. Bookies serve regional representatives like Ma, and then recruit brokers/agents to attract gamblers.

In June 2010, police in Shenzhen arrested 34 suspects from an online gambling ring, seized about 400 banking cards and froze 300 bank accounts. They said more than 10 billion yuan changed hands, according to a report in Guangzhou Daily last month.

The police alleged that between 2008 and 2010, the gambling ring recruited nearly 5,000 people including representatives of overseas gambling sites, bookies, brokers and gamblers.

Usually the gambling rings have specific people who manage the website, collect debts, oversee money transfers and recruit members, usually acquaintances.

Ripe with danger

Many bookies have connections to mafias or loan sharks who are not reluctant to use violence to collect from gamblers, said Ren.

"They threaten you, beat you up, smash up your property, you name it," Ren said.

It's difficult for authorities to say how much illegal gambling enterprises make or lose every year but Wang Xuehong, executive director of China Center for Lottery Studies at Peking University, told Nanfang Daily that illegal bets could exceed 1 trillion yuan, 10 times the sales of legal lotteries.

Many sports commentators, sports administrators and experts support the idea of legitimizing soccer gambling to deter the underground market.

"[Soccer betting] is already legal in China, we have sports lottery," said Ren, who also tried the legitimate lotteries. "They just have to manage it better and make it more attractive."

"[The illegal soccer betting] is just much more fun than lotteries!" said Ren. Indeed people can bet on anything and everything on these illegal websites like how many corner kicks or even how many players' wives would expose part of the breasts by wearing skimpy outfits at games.

Gambling organizers may receive less than three years in prison based on the Criminal Law. Participants may be detained for up to five days and fined 500 yuan fine, according to the Law of Public Security Administration and Punishment.

By July 5, 2010, police raided over 600 online gambling groups during the World Cup, arrested over 810 people, detained and fined over 800, and confiscated or froze bets valued at more than 50 million yuan, according to the Ministry of Public Security.

Not many gamblers are willing to put themselves out there and report on the bookies. And sometimes lower level police simply brush off such reports, according to Ren.