As the nation reeled from its second professional baseball game-fixing scandal in eight years, the government declared yesterday that the mastermind behind the fiasco would be apprehended to avoid doing damage to Taiwan's social order.
Cabinet spokesman Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said investigators were widening their dragnet, hoping to snare more suspects.
"There must be a big group behind all this, and the mastermind must be singled out and caught," he said.
Cho said the latest scandal has damaged people's confidence in Taiwan as it looks forward to hosting the 2009 World Games, not to mention the confidence of baseball fans.
The spokesman urged the public to think long and hard about the feasibility of introducing baseball management mechanisms from foreign countries, including whether a sports lottery could help eliminate rampant underground gambling.
There are two theories about the impact of the government starting a sports lottery, Cho said.
"One goes that it would discourage underground gambling; the other says just the opposite. The government has not decided which way to go," he said.
Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Legislator Lo Chih-ming (羅志明) from Kaohsiung City, a staunch supporter of having the government run a sports lottery, said he will introduce a bill in the legislature for the government to sponsor a sports lottery that would be run in a fair and just manner.
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