Jumping out of the “Vicious Cycle” and Forging Effective Policing Strategies over Underground “Mark Six” in Mainland China

Underground “Mark Six” (UMS) has flourished in mainland China in the past decade regardless of numerous police crackdowns. The resilience of UMS relates not only to its sophisticated operation, but also the ineffective law-enforcement practice. Combining the analyses of fieldwork observations, in-depth individual interviews, legal documents, and media cases, this paper presents the problems in current policing practice over UMS, including barriers in bureaucratic procedures, periodicity of campaigns, public distrusts of the police, low morale in the police, and misconduct of some police officers. It further points out that at least four factors has impeded the effective law-enforcement on UMS, including the legislative weakness (the lack of legal basis), administrative obstacles (the lack of priorities in policing agenda) and supervisory loopholes (the ineffectiveness in monitoring mechanisms). This article suggests that the police should strengthen internal anti-corruption efforts to eliminate collusion with gambling syndicates, resist interference in policing from Party or government officials, and forge collaboration with community citizens to jointly combat the intractable UMS.