A month has passed since Super Basketball League (SBL) player Wu Chi-ying (吳季穎), who played for Taiwan Beer this season, was questioned on suspicion of match fixing while he was with the Yulon Luxgen Dinos the previous season.
Over the past month, prosecutors conducted another two investigations into alleged match fixing. Players were questioned and their residences searched. Every investigation has caused an uproar and fans are losing trust in the sport.
The Chinese Taipei Basketball Association, teams and government agencies have proposed solutions, as did the parallel bodies amid the dark times of 1996 to 2009, when several baseball professionals were caught up in match fixing scandals. It seems that history is repeating, but effective solutions have not been found.
To end the problem, the government must play a significant role in reforming the system, and tighter laws must be enacted and enforced.
Several measures have been announced to deal with the basketball scandals. Prosecutors have collaborated with teams in their investigations and teams have updated their rules to increase penalties for people found guilty of fixing.
However, these measures were tried in 2009. Nothing really worked until the Executive Yuan convened a national baseball conference, at which the government showed its determination to reform the entire system.
First, several agencies, the leagues, teams and players’ associations established a platform to prevent gambling and illegal betting. Second, members of the Taiwan Professional Baseball Players’ Association formed a trust fund to stop illicit betting. Third, the Sports Lottery Issuance Act (運動彩券發行條例) was revised to increase penalties for illegal betting. Fourth, baseball associations amended their regulations for free agency, minimum income and player transfers to enhance the environment for professional baseball players in Taiwan.
After the recent spate of basketball incidents, many proposals have been put forward to address match fixing. It is regrettable that the Ministry of Education’s Sports Administration has failed to intervene or provide significant assistance.
The Sports Administration must lay out extensive plans to change the education system and examine the sports environment to enhance conditions for athletes.
Still, it is much more important to address the problem through legislative means.
After the Sports Lottery Issuance Act was amended, the Chinese Professional Baseball League faced heavy fines due to betting scandals.
However, while the SBL is covered by the act, the other professional leagues — the P.League+ and the T1 League, as well as leagues in many other sports run by corporations — are not. They are not subject to penalties under the act, meaning they might become a loophole for illegal betting and match fixing.
While articles 7.1 to 7.3 of the Sports Industry Development Act (運動產業發展條例) are to be revised, with draft amendments waiting to be evaluated at the legislature, it should seize the opportunity to amend the Sports Lottery Issuance Act. It should work to improve the environment for professional and amateur sports, and the law should more comprehensively cover leagues.
Hopefully, that would help address the problem of illegal betting and match fixing.
Chiao Chia-hung is former deputy director of the Taiwan Professional Baseball Players’ Association.
Translated by Emma Liu
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) continues to bully Taiwan by conducting military drills extremely close to Taiwan in late May 2024 and announcing a legal opinion in June on how they would treat “Taiwan Independence diehards” according to the PRC’s Criminal Code. This article will describe how China’s Anaconda Strategy of psychological and legal asphyxiation is employed. The CCP’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and Chinese Coast Guard (CCG) conducted a “punishment military exercise” against Taiwan called “Joint Sword 2024A” from 23-24 May 2024, just three days after President William Lai (賴清德) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was sworn in and
Former US president Donald Trump’s comments that Taiwan hollowed out the US semiconductor industry are incorrect. That misunderstanding could impact the future of one of the world’s most important relationships and end up aiding China at a time it is working hard to push its own tech sector to catch up. “Taiwan took our chip business from us,” the returnee US presidential contender told Bloomberg Businessweek in an interview published this week. The remarks came after the Republican nominee was asked whether he would defend Taiwan against China. It is not the first time he has said this about the nation’s
In a recent interview with the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily, former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) called President William Lai (賴清德) “naive.” As always with Ma, one must first deconstruct what he is saying to fully understand the parallel universe he insists on defending. Who is being “naive,” Lai or Ma? The quickest way is to confront Ma with a series of pointed questions that force him to take clear stands on the complex issues involved and prevent him from his usual ramblings. Regarding China and Taiwan, the media should first begin with questions like these: “Did the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)
The Yomiuri Shimbun, the newspaper with the largest daily circulation in Japan, on Thursday last week published an article saying that an unidentified high-ranking Japanese official openly spoke of an analysis that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) needs less than a week, not a month, to invade Taiwan with its amphibious forces. Reportedly, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has already been advised of the analysis, which was based on the PLA’s military exercises last summer. A Yomiuri analysis of unclassified satellite photographs confirmed that the PLA has already begun necessary base repairs and maintenance, and is conducting amphibious operation exercises