China releases 10 Crown Resorts staff who were jailed for gambling crimes

China has released 10 employees of Australian casino operator Crown Resorts, the first of 16 who were detained in October and sentenced in June for gambling crimes.

Four employees, including Australian national Jerry Xuan, emerged from a Shanghai detention facility today accompanied by family members and security officials, according to a Reuters reporter at the scene.

They left immediately in cars without speaking to the media.

Another six were released from a second facility in the city, said a man who identified himself as a lawyer for the families and who declined to give his name.

"Everything went OK," a family member of one of the employees told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Nineteen employees were detained as Crown was trying to attract high-spending Chinese to its casinos outside China, where gambling is illegal except in the territory of Macau.

A court jailed 16 of the employees including three Australians for nine to 10 months, backdated to their October detention.