Of the 16 defendants who were charged, 11 were also sentenced to nine-month jail terms, with the remaining five to a period of 10 months. Another three defendants were not fined or sentenced to any jail time.

The case - part of a wider crackdown on gambling in China - has forced Crown to tear up its strategy of luring wealthy Chinese to the casino hub in the Chinese territory of Macau and instead shift its focus back home. Crown said it would pay its employees' fines ex gratia.

(Reporting by Sandhya Sampath in Bengaluru. Editing by Jane Wardell and Simon Cameron-Moore)