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More than a dozen employees at Crown Resorts Ltd., billionaire James Packer’s gaming company that’s at the center of a probe in China, were convicted of illegally promoting gambling in the most high-profile crackdown on overseas casino operators courting customers on the mainland.

Among the 19 current and former Crown employees who pleaded guilty to organizing gambling was Jason O’Connor, Crown’s head of international high-roller operations, who was handed a sentence of 10 months in jail. Two other Australians received nine months from Shanghai’s Baoshan district court. They could have faced a maximum of three years under Chinese law. The sentencing takes into account the time they have served in detention since October, which means some of them could be released within weeks.

The verdict comes eight months after the arrests roiled the Melbourne-based company and highlighted the fine line foreign casinos walk in courting customers from mainland China, where it’s illegal to gamble or promote gaming. The case comes at a time when the government wants to curtail hundreds of billions of dollars worth of outflow, some of which exit the mainland via betting operations.

“Crown remains respectful of the sovereign jurisdiction of the People’s Republic of China and does not intend to comment further at this time,” the company said in an exchange statement Monday.

Sixteen of the 19 staff held since late October were fined a total of 8.62 million yuan ($1.3 million), which Crown said it would pay. Since the crackdown, the company has sold out of its Macau venture and closed most of its offices across Asia. Crown’s VIP revenue plummeted 45 percent in the six months ended Dec. 31 in the wake of the detentions.

‘Rap Over Knuckles’

Crown shares gained 0.3 percent to A$12.79 in Sydney Monday. That trimmed the stock’s loss since the detentions to about 1.2 percent.

“It’s a rap over the knuckles,’’ said Vivienne Bath, a professor at University of Sydney specializing in Chinese law. “To get away with nine or 10 months is not bad. They’re not handing out long sentences but their position is still clear.’’

Five individuals, including O’Connor and Malaysian Alfread Gomez, received 10-month terms, while three received no jail term and the remaining were sentenced to nine months, Ma Lang, an attorney for one of the defendants said Monday.

Family and lawyers streamed out of the courthouse after the verdict and were escorted by security. They did not answer questions from the media, which were not allowed into the court room.

Harry Liu, a Shanghai-based lawyer at King & Wood Mallesons who’s representing some Crown staff, didn’t respond to a request for comment through his firm.

In an unrelated South Korean case, employees of casino operators Paradise Co. and Grand Korea Leisure Co. were arrested in June 2015 for promoting gambling on the mainland. The companies have said their employees were released last year after serving jail terms. Seven Grand Korea Leisure employees each served about 17 months in jail, which included their detention during the investigation period. Six employees of Paradise were jailed for about a year.

— With assistance by Angus Whitley, Rachel Chang, Daniela Wei, Gregory Turk, and Hooyeon Kim