CCTV News:Recently, a news that six teachers in Yongsheng County, Lijiang, Yunnan Province were demoted for playing mahjong during the winter vacation aroused public concern. Some people questioned that playing mahjong should be dealt with, especially during the winter vacation. Is this too harsh on teachers? In addition, how to define entertainment or gambling? In this regard, the "Rule of Law Online" reporter rushed to the local area to interview the relevant parties exclusively.

　　　　　　 According to Deng Chaobin, director of Yongbei Police Station of Yongsheng County Public Security Bureau who handled this case, on the afternoon of February 16, 2019, the police station received an alarm and some people gathered for gambling.

　　　　　　 Deng Chaobin, director of Yongbei Police Station of Yongsheng County Public Security Bureau, said: "On the afternoon of February 16th, we received an anonymous report from the masses, that is to say, in this family at No.43 Huancheng East Road in our jurisdiction, some people gathered to gamble, so after receiving this report from the masses that day, our police station immediately organized the police to rush to this reported place."

　　　　　　 According to the police, the reported location is located on the fourth floor of a residential building. The picture of the law enforcement recorder shows that when the police rushed to the scene and asked the people in the room to open the door, no one came to open the door. From the window of the corridor, it can be clearly seen that two men in the room jumped out of the window on the fourth floor to escape, while others hurriedly fled in the room.

　　　　　　 Deng Chaobin: "When we arrived at the scene, we found that there was a mahjong table in each of the three rooms, and they were all playing mahjong." Subsequently, the police conducted a survey on the scene, and they found that the amount of gambling funds at each table was not small.

　　　　　　 Deng Chaobin: "In general, three tables of mahjong add up to 28,800 yuan, so the gambling money collected from three tables of mahjong is more than 12,000, the second table is more than 9,000, and the third table is more than 6,900. That’s right."

　　　　　　 Subsequently, the police took the people in the house to the police station for further investigation. Subsequently, the police found through investigation that this is not a simple entertainment activity between friends. Because some people who gamble know each other, and some are the first time to join in gambling.

　　　　　　 The police found that Zhang, the owner of this apartment on the fourth floor, usually attracts some friends to play mahjong at home and collects some fees from them. At the same time, the police found that among the 12 gamblers, nine were public officials, six of whom were teachers.

　　　　　　 Deng Chaobin: "After the seizure on the same day, the words in the process of inquiry also reflected that some had won or lost thousands of dollars, some had almost lost all of them, and some had won thousands of dollars. That’s right. According to our local salary standard, that is to say, the monthly salary of these public officials is several thousand dollars. It can be said that according to the gambling money seized that day, it can be said that almost one month’s salary is taken with you to participate in this gambling. Then some of them are nearly half of their wages, so their per capita gambling money on that day far exceeds our minimum standard of illegal gambling in all parts of the country. This is the case. "

　　　　　　 Nine public officials participated in gambling and seized 28,800 gambling funds.

　　　　　　 Twelve people gamble and nine are public officials. How to punish them? According to the local police, 28,800 gambling funds were seized on the spot, which did not meet the criteria for criminal offences. Therefore, they made penalties according to the Law on Public Security Administration Punishment.

　　　　　　 Article 70 of the Law of People’s Republic of China (PRC) on Public Security Administration Punishment stipulates that those who provide conditions for gambling for the purpose of making profits, or who participate in gambling with a large amount of money, shall be detained for less than five days or fined less than 500 yuan; If the circumstances are serious, they shall be detained for not less than 10 days but not more than 15 days, and be fined not less than 500 yuan but not more than 3,000 yuan.

　　　　　　 Then, how to identify the gambling capital? According to the local police, they mainly refer to the Guiding Opinions on Discretion Standards for Handling Gambling Illegal Cases published by the Yunnan Provincial Public Security Department in January 2019, and comprehensively consider the identification standards across the country. In this guidance, Article 4 stipulates that "those who participate in gambling with a large amount of money" as stipulated in Article 70 of the Law of People’s Republic of China (PRC) on Public Security Administration Punishment refers to a gambling administrative case in which the per capita gambling amount is less than 2,000 yuan in 200 yuan.

　　　　　　 Deng Chaobin: "So from a national perspective, it is between 200 and 500. Then, judging from the gambling money collected from three tables of mahjong that day, each table far exceeds this range, and it has reached at least 1,700 yuan, and the smallest table has reached more than 1,700."

　　　　　　 Which situation is "serious"? The Ministry of Public Security issued guidance.

　　　　　　 At the same time, the police introduced that according to the "Guiding Opinions on the Discretion of Public Security Organs to Punish Some Violations of Public Security Management" issued by the Ministry of Public Security in June 2018, Article 78, paragraph 3, stipulates that the participation of state staff in gambling belongs to "serious circumstances".

　　　　　　 Deng Chaobin: "This is the guidance of our Ministry of Public Security. As the actual situation of cracking down on gambling crimes in the whole country, that is to say, every public official also represents his own official status. Then what you are doing represents the image of this unit and has a different impact on society. If these public officials participate in gambling, it means that it is clearly stipulated that the circumstances are serious according to the guidance, so the punishment range means that they should be punished for more than 10 days."

　　　　　　 According to the police, according to these laws and regulations and the specific circumstances of the case, they finally made a punishment decision.

　　　　　　 Deng Chaobin: "Then, in view of the situation of the day and the whole case, all the gambling personnel with nine public officials actively cooperated with our public security organs to investigate and realized their mistakes. Then, taking these situations into consideration as appropriate, 12 gambling personnel, including these nine public officials, were finally sentenced to administrative detention for 10 days and fined 500 yuan. Zhang, who provided conditions for gambling, was detained for 15 days and fined 3,000 yuan."

　　　　　　 Subsequently, according to the handling mechanism of the public security organs, these nine public officials were handed over to the discipline inspection and supervision department for further handling.

　　　　　　 Deng Chaobin: "Because our public security organs have a case-handling cooperation mechanism with the Commission for Discipline Inspection and the Supervisory Committee, that is to say, once it is found that a public official in this country or party member has violated relevant laws and regulations and been seized by various departments, law enforcement departments and law enforcement case-handling departments, we must hand over the relevant clues to the Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision. According to this mechanism, if we are required to complete this case, we will submit the relevant clues to the Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervision in time, and

　　　　　　 Nine people were detained on the 10 th and then handed over to the county commission for discipline inspection.

　　　　　　 Then, how did these nine public officials who participated in gambling get demoted or otherwise punished? In this regard, we interviewed the local Commission for Discipline Inspection and the Education Bureau.

　　　　　　 He Wenjin, deputy secretary of the Commission for Discipline Inspection of Yongsheng County: "After they (the public security organs) informed us, we also organized personnel to analyze it, because we had to analyze the specific case, and then we found that these nine public officials had three identities."

　　　　　　 According to the staff of the Disciplinary Committee of Yongsheng County, Lijiang City, after the public security organs handed over nine public officials to the Disciplinary Committee, they found that these nine public officials had three different identities. He Wenjin: "One is a civil servant, the other is a people’s teacher, and the other is an employee of an enterprise. Therefore, we have diverted its clues to different places according to the cadre management authority. The civil servants involved, that is, the county cadres, are handled by our Commission for Discipline Inspection, and then six teachers are involved. According to the cadre management authority, all of them are non-Party, so we have to hand them over to our Education Bureau for handling."

　　　　　　 Three public officials, two of whom are also party member. Therefore, the local discipline inspection departments have different results in dealing with them. He Wenjin: "Two civil servants, both of whom are department-level cadres, so we have to go through our procedures for filing a case, so we will deal with party member in accordance with the disciplinary regulations of the Communist Party of China (CPC), so we have given them a serious warning and this punishment. There is another civil servant. He is also a county-level cadre and a department-level cadre, but he is not party member. He is a non-party. Therefore, we will follow the regulations on the punishment of public servants, that is, civil servants in administrative organs. The regulations on which it is based are different. Therefore, according to that regulation, he was punished with administrative demerits. "

　　　　　　 At the same time, Yongsheng County Education Bureau also received clues from the public security department and the discipline inspection department.

　　　　　　 Director of Yongsheng County Education Bureau and Genjie: "We strictly follow the specific provisions in the Provisional Regulations on the Punishment of Staff in this institution, so Article 21 stipulates that the punishment should be given to lower the post level in the following circumstances. Then one of the following circumstances in Article 21 includes this gambling participant, who participates in gambling, and clearly stipulates that the punishment should be given to lower the post level."

　　　　　　 Subsequently, the local education bureau made a decision to lower the post level of six teachers involved. And the principals of the three schools to which these six teachers belong were given the accountability treatment of canceling the qualification of appraising the first year and reporting it to the county.

　　　　　　 Director of Education Bureau of Yongsheng County and Genjie: "As a teacher, the profession is special. We must face our next generation, train our next generation, and run a satisfactory education for the people. As a teacher, it will definitely have a greater impact than public officials in other units. It’s not that this is the way to deal with it this time. Before that, we also found that we would never tolerate it together. This is what we have always insisted on in strengthening the construction of the times. "

　　　　　　 The public official involved said that he thought it was entertainment at the beginning.

　　　　　　 Why do these public officials take part in gambling? We also contacted several public officials involved in the case. According to them, they thought it was entertainment at ordinary times, but they didn’t expect to be involved in gambling.

　　　　　　 The parties said that they met to play mahjong after shopping that day, and then they met to play mahjong at Zhang’s house. According to the parties, it is not the first time that they came to Zhang’s house to play mahjong, and they will give Zhang some fees every time they go. Regarding their participation in gambling, several parties said that they always thought it was daily entertainment and didn’t realize that they had violated the law.

　　　　　　 Although several parties said that they didn’t think they were gambling, they also revealed in their words that if they lost, they would actually have an impact on their lives, which has deviated from the original intention of entertainment. After the incident, several parties felt very regretful.

　　　　　　 Expert Interpretation: How to Define Gambling and Entertainment

　　　　　　 Seeing this, people who may love playing mahjong will have such questions: "Do I usually play mahjong as entertainment or gambling?" If you want to play mahjong reasonably and legally, you must know where the legal boundaries between entertainment and gambling are. Next, we will ask legal experts to interpret it.

　　　　　　 Zhu Wei, a professor at China University of Political Science and Law, said that regarding gambling, we should look at it separately. Firstly, the criminal law stipulates that there is gambling crime, which is generally for profit according to this business model. Secondly, there is a gathering plot, and there are certain standards for lottery. The provisions of this standard vary from place to place. If the other piece does not rise to the crime of gambling as stipulated in the criminal law, then there is an administrative punishment on gambling in the Administrative Punishment Law. According to its nature, it mainly depends on the circumstances, including whether he has this kind of business, including how big the lottery is after opening a casino, and it depends on the number of people he gathers.

　　　　　　 Regarding whether it constitutes a gambling crime, the Interpretation of the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate on Several Issues Concerning the Specific Application of Laws in Handling Gambling Criminal Cases has made more detailed provisions. Among them, Article 1 stipulates that for the purpose of making profits, one of the following circumstances belongs to "gathering gambling" as stipulated in Article 303 of the Criminal Law: (1) organizing more than three people to gamble, and the total amount of tapped profits has reached more than 5,000 yuan; (2) Organizing more than three people to gamble, and the amount of gambling funds has reached more than 50,000 yuan; (3) Organizing more than 3 people to gamble, and the total number of gamblers has reached more than 20; (four) organizing more than 10 People’s Republic of China (PRC) citizens to gamble abroad, and collecting kickbacks and referral fees from them.

　　　　　　 As for whether it constitutes gambling in the Law on Public Security Administration Punishment, Professor Zhu Wei introduced that different regions have different standards for the amount of gambling funds because of different conditions such as economic development. By consulting the discretion standards of local public security organs, it was found that the lowest gambling funds included in the punishment were 200 yuan. The difference is that Shandong and Henan are defined as "per capita gambling amount", while Hebei and Jiangxi are defined as "individual gambling funds". The bottom line of punishment for personal gambling in Beijing and Liaoning is 300 yuan and 500 yuan respectively. Zhejiang divides the bottom line of individual gambling funds from 200 yuan to 500 yuan, "the specific amount is determined by the municipal public security organs according to the local law enforcement practice". Guangdong has also issued relevant discretionary standards by various cities. For example, the bottom line of punishment for personal gambling in Shenzhen is 500 yuan, and the bottom line of punishment in Qingyuan City is expressed as: "Personal gambling is dissatisfied with 500 yuan, the winning or losing amount is dissatisfied with 200 yuan or the highest single bet is dissatisfied with 50 yuan." At the same time, other provinces have their own regulations.

　　　　　　 Zhu Wei, a professor at China University of Political Science and Law, said that the lottery is constantly increasing, but the standard of gambling is constantly decreasing. It has a stricter standard. If this standard is lowered too low, people will feel that the boundary between entertainment and illegality is not easy to grasp. So many people have a chilling effect, and everyone is afraid to get together to play mahjong, which is problematic. However, this ceiling is too high, and if the law enforcement standards in many places are too loose, you will find that gambling is an addictive behavior. Many people who like gambling in novels or in real life are called gambler. Why is it called gambler? It is because of an addictive behavior. So sometimes in order to increase the punishment, as an example, several cases may be sentenced, which has a great influence in the local area, just to cut off this gambling atmosphere and let gambler know that the law has such provisions and dare not do such acts. So it has such an effect of warning society.

　　　　　　 What is the boundary between entertainment and gambling? Professor Zhu Wei believes that the difference between entertainment and gambling lies in whether it is for profit subjectively.

　　　　　　 Zhu Wei, a professor at China University of Political Science and Law, said, then the core lies in profitability. How do you assess these profitability? I think the criteria for determining this in daily judicial practice are different. It depends on whether you are friends, know each other well, and have known each other for more than ten years. We have been friends since childhood, and playing mahjong together, which is frequent, should not be recognized as profitability. Some people are friends, some are not friends, and everyone is gathered for the purpose of playing mahjong and gambling. At this time, it is very likely that you are presumed to be profitable in practice. The last point depends on whether he has regular behavior. For example, someone is reporting that this family often plays mahjong at night, many people make noise together, and often open such gambling halls. Moreover, neighbors have said that these people often have parties in this house, and everyone starts and ends at what time. With this police record and alarm record, it can be inferred that he has certain business and daily behavior, which is different from playing mahjong once or twice at home.

　　　　　　 The "two highs" clearly stipulate that public officials are "aggravated"

　　　　　　 At the same time, the Interpretation of the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate on Several Issues Concerning the Specific Application of Laws in Handling Gambling Criminal Cases also clearly stipulates aggravating circumstances, including those who have the status of national staff, organizing national staff to gamble abroad, organizing minors to participate in gambling, or opening casinos to attract minors to participate in gambling. Professor Zhu Wei introduced that public officials involved in gambling in this case are aggravated offenders.

　　　　　　 Zhu Wei, a professor at China University of Political Science and Law, said that on the one hand, the reason for doing this is to set an example for the people, and more importantly, to avoid this hidden bribery. Because there are a lot of such bribes given to you through mahjong and gambling, if you want to bribe, you may not need to give money directly. It is no problem to have a meal and play mahjong, and you will lose tens of thousands of dollars directly and a lot of money to you. The parties are well aware of this, so the legislation fully took this into account and made a full article from the perspective of aggravated crimes, so you seem to be innocent. However, from the perspective of a whole society, it is very necessary to make such a provision for aggravated offenders, and this cut cannot be opened. Once it is opened, it will be entertainment, so it is good to give gifts to teachers, civil servants and play mahjong. Several people can easily make money with him. So this cut is linked to bribery again.

　　　　　　 So for ordinary people, how to grasp the boundary between gambling and entertainment?

　　　　　　 Zhu Wei, a professor at China University of Political Science and Law, said: "I think for ordinary people, there are several points to pay attention to. Since the first point is entertainment, you should not hold the mentality of winning money. The so-called lottery should not be too high. The second is whether you know these people. I think this is also a standard. Relatives and friends are entertainment. If you don’t know this person at all, is this entertainment? This is definitely not entertainment. The third point depends on how many people there are. For example, after entering a room, there are many tables of mahjong there, which is gambling in groups. “