An illegal online gambling operation by a criminal ring based in Taoyuan has been shut down, the Criminal Investigation Bureau said yesterday, adding that the Web site handled NT$1 billion (US$32.47 million) in bets over the past six months.
Police earlier this month raided several places in Jhongli District (中壢), arresting a number of suspects, including the two suspected leaders surnamed Peng (彭) and Hsu (徐), the bureau said.
“Police entered Peng’s residence in Jhongli, seizing money-counting machines and computers, as well as two telephones, account books, NT$1.72 million in cash and other material,” Fourth Investigation Corps Captain Chang Yao-han (張躍瀚) said.
Chang said the Web site was linked to the China-based site Beijing Auto Racing PK10 (北京賽車PK10), reportedly one of the most popular forms of online gambling.
The site offers rewards for betting on major sports events, an online lottery, bingo and simulated auto racing games.
Taiwanese placed about NT$20 million in bets each week with the Taoyuan group, totaling about NT$1 billion in the past six months, Chang said.
On Sept. 5, officers raided a residential building, where they found computers and communication equipment used to run an illegal gambling Web site, the bureau said, adding that Hsu was in charge, along with four alleged members of the criminal ring.
The officers also found that Hsu and the others were using ketamine, the bureau said, adding that they would also be charged for possession of illegal drugs.
Investigators quoted Hsu as saying during questioning that he and higher-ranking members of the group received permission from the site’s Chinese operators to set up a branch in Taiwan under a profit-sharing arrangement.
Hsu said he took no part in the operation and did not handle any money, but only worked as a “branch manager” for the site’s Chinese proprietors, receiving a small commission, investigators said.
He only made NT$10 million, which he had to share with other members of the operation and young people who were hired to do odd jobs, he was quoted as saying.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater