Soccer gambling ring on trial

A Guangzhou district court in Guangdong province has started hearing the country's largest illegal online gambling case, involving 484 billion yuan ($78.79 billion) in stakes.

Nineteen defendants are accused of involvement in soccer gambling via overseas websites and operating illegal casinos, the Yangcheng Evening News reported on Wednesday.

Due to the large number of defendants, the hearing, in Liwan district court in Guangzhou, will last four days.

Two of the defendants, Huang Jianpei and Chen Ninghai, are charged with operating two online gambling websites and collecting more than 70 million yuan in stakes, prosecutors said.

Huang and Chen were arrested in April 2013 while the head of the group, surnamed Xie, is still on the run.