Hong Kong’s prisons are once again a hive of cigarette-fueled gambling activity as the hours count down to the start of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

As police forces across the Asia-Pacific region brace for this month’s expected onslaught of illegal football wagering, Hong Kong authorities are once again reminding the world that where there’s a will, there’s a way (to wager).

On Monday, Hong Kong’s Correctional Services Department announced that its officers had conducted over 3,000 prison searches in the first five months of 2018 that uncovered 45 inmates running some form of illegal gambling operation despite their limited freedom.

The guards reported that the total sum being wagered via these illegal means was over HK$1.3m (US$166k), with most of these wagers using cigarettes as currency. For the record, while the number of would-be bookies nabbed was roughly the same as in the run-up to the 2014 World Cup, the total handle was HKD300k higher this time around. (Clearly, Hong Kong is imprisoning a higher class of criminal these days.)