Jeju Becomes Mecca for Chinese Gamblers

Jeju is fast turning into a new mecca for China's inveterate gamblers, with casinos offering all-inclusive packages that mean visitors can practically hit the tables the moment they step off the plane.

One casino offers free round-trip tickets and a room at a five-star hotel to high rollers from China. A Chinese interpreter and Chinese cooking are also part of the package.

One Chinese newspaper reporting on overseas gambling said Jeju Island has become a "new haven" by offering a welter of services, including sex.

Jeju's casinos have opened offices in China to tout for gamblers there. One agent has organized 53 gambling trips to Jeju for Chinese gamblers over the last two years.

Some casinos get caught lending money at high interest to keep Chinese gamblers at the tables. They offer gambling chips after money is wired to bank accounts in China and send money into the accounts of gamblers held in Chinese banks. This means there is no need for gamblers to carry cash.

One official in Zhejiang Province said, "Once Jeju offered visa-free entry to Chinese citizens, gamblers who used to go to Burma, Laos and Vietnam started heading there instead."

Many Chinese gamblers end up losing their shirt. One Chinese diplomat on the southern resort island said, "There is an '80-percent' rule when it comes to Chinese tourists to Jeju Island. Eighty percent of tourists to Jeju are Chinese, 80 percent of them gamble and 80 percent of them end up losing money."

In some instances Chinese tourists have turned to loan sharks on the resort island, have their passports confiscated and commit suicide when their luck refuses to turn.

The Chinese daily reported than Chinese tourists spent US$74 billion on overseas gambling, second only after the U.S. when it comes to the amount of money spent on gambling outside its borders.

Chinese officials have pledged to crack down on overseas gambling, since gambling is illegal on the mainland. Gambling overseas is also illegal, but authorities have looked the other way until now.

China's Leisure and Cultural Services Department said Wednesday that the number of outbound Chinese tourists surpassed 100 million for the first time this year. The number of Chinese visiting Korea and Japan in January to November of this year surged more than 40 percent compared to the same period of 2013.

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Dan Abrams to Anchor 'Nightline'; Terry Moran Becomes ABC Chief Foreign Correspondent

By Sara Morrison

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Dan Abrams has been named "Nightline" anchor and chief legal affairs anchor, ABC News president Ben Sherwood announced Tuesday.

He replaces Terry Moran on the late-night magazine show; Moran will become ABC News' London-based anchor and chief foreign correspondent.

Abrams joined ABC in 2011 as a legal analyst and substitute "Good Morning America" anchor after several years in various positions at NBC. In 2009, he founded Abrams Media, which publishes sites such as Mediaite and Gossip Cop. He will step down as Abrams Media CEO to devote more time to his new position at ABC, ABC said. He will also have an expanded role at "GMA" and appear on "The Lookout."

Moran, will move to London "later this summer," according to ABC, bringing his time as "Nightline" co-anchor, which began in 2005, to an end.

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Dan Abrams to Anchor 'Nightline'; Terry Moran Becomes ABC Chief Foreign Correspondent

By Sara Morrison

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Dan Abrams has been named "Nightline" anchor and chief legal affairs anchor, ABC News president Ben Sherwood announced Tuesday.

He replaces Terry Moran on the late-night magazine show; Moran will become ABC News' London-based anchor and chief foreign correspondent.

Abrams joined ABC in 2011 as a legal analyst and substitute "Good Morning America" anchor after several years in various positions at NBC. In 2009, he founded Abrams Media, which publishes sites such as Mediaite and Gossip Cop. He will step down as Abrams Media CEO to devote more time to his new position at ABC, ABC said. He will also have an expanded role at "GMA" and appear on "The Lookout."

Moran, will move to London "later this summer," according to ABC, bringing his time as "Nightline" co-anchor, which began in 2005, to an end.

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Japanese octogenarian becomes oldest to reach Everest summit

By Gopal Sharma

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - An 80-year-old Japanese mountain climber who has had four heart surgeries reached the top of Mount Everest on Thursday becoming the oldest person to conquer the world's highest mountain.

Yuichiro Miura, who took the standard southeast ridge route pioneered by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay 60 years ago, reached the top of the 8,848 meter (29,028 feet) mountain at about 9:00 a.m. (0315 GMT). He was accompanied by three other Japanese, including his son, and six Nepali sherpas.

"This is the greatest feeling in the world," he told family members and supporters gathered in Tokyo, speaking from the summit by satellite phone.

"I never thought I'd get to the summit of Everest at the age of 80. It was the best feeling to get here, but now I'm completely exhausted."

Miura, who first climbed Everest in 2003 and repeated the feat five years later, takes the oldest climber record from Nepal's Min Bahadur Sherchan, who reached the summit at the age of 76 in 2008.

"The record is not so important to me," Miura told Reuters in April, before setting off for Everest. "It is important to get to the top."

Miura spent the night at 8,500 meters (27,887 ft) at the Balcony in the so-called death zone before launching his final ascent, rather than the 8,000 meter South Col which is used as a resting place by most climbers before the summit climb, said Gyanendra Shrestha, a Nepal Tourism Ministry official.

His ascent had been watched closely in Japan, with daily broadcasts of phone calls and photographs from the climb - including one night when he and his fellow climbers drank green Japanese tea and ate hand-rolled sushi in their tent high on the mountain.

A noted adventurer, Miura skied down Everest from the South Col in 1970, a feat that became the subject of a documentary. He has since skied down the highest mountains on each of the seven continents, following the tradition of his late father Keizo, who skied down Europe's Mont Blanc at the age of 99.

He trained for the Everest climb by hiking in Tokyo with weighted packs and working out on a treadmill in a special low-oxygen room in his home.

Nearly 4,000 climbers have reached the Everest summit since the pioneering May 1953 climb, while 240 have lost their lives on its slopes.

Miura is not the first record-setter on Everest this climbing season.

Raha Moharrak became the first Saudi Arabian woman to conquer the peak, while Sudarshan Gautam, a 30-year-old Nepali-born Canadian who lost both arms in an accident, became the first double amputee to summit.

Miura's record may only be his to savor briefly. Nepal's Min Bahadur Sherchan, now 81, plans to start climbing the peak this weekend.

(Reporting by Gopal Sharma and Elaine Lies, editing by Elaine Lies and Michael Perry)

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