Changhua County police yesterday displayed materials and evidence seized in raids over the past few weeks related to 37 cases of illegal gambling pools, five of which were focused on wagers on the outcome of the presidential and legislative elections next Saturday.
Nine people were detained in relation to the five cases and have been listed as suspects after questioning, Criminal Police Section Deputy Chief Lin Shih-ming (林世明) said, adding that they faced charges for contravening provisions of the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), under which it is illegal to wager on election outcomes.
Gamblers placed wagers on the presidential election through the use of the code words “fish” (魚), a homophone in Chinese of the third character in the name of Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, and “vegetable” (菜), a homophone of President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) surname, Lin said.
Photo copied by Tang Shih-ming, Taipei Times
One seized mobile phone showed that its owner wrote: “Can we eat ‘fish’ today?” on Line, asking a gambling pool operator if they were taking bets on Han that day. After receiving an affirmative reply, the man wrote back to place a NT$500,000 (US$16,609) wager on Han.
A total of 46 suspects were detained in the raids across the county related to the 37 cases, which involved NT$132 million in wagers, Lin said.
“Proprietors of underground gambling pools had flourished in past elections, but law enforcement agencies and local police have intensified their sweeps to crack down on these and other illegal activities related to the elections,” Lin said.
“Over the past several years, we have seen less vote-buying, but more illegal gambling on election outcomes through these operations,” he said.
“Through our investigations and the seized evidence, we can see that the proprietors skewed the odds to entice people to bet on a particular candidate. Those who placed large wagers would do their best to win by persuading friends and relatives to cast votes for those candidates, increasing their chances of a big payout,” he added.
The Criminal Investigation Bureau earlier this week said in a year-end report that enhanced efforts last month to crack down on illegal gambling that could affect the elections had seen some success, with 89 suspects detained for questioning over 56 cases of illegal gambling pools focused on the election outcomes.
Last month’s 56 increased the total number of cases related to illegal wagers on the election outcomes to 113 for the whole of last year, Bureau Deputy Commissioner Chu Tsung-tai (朱宗泰) said.
An examination of the evidence is under way to confirm the total amount wagered and investigate the money flow in the 56 cases, he added.
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