By tracing an inadvertent e-mail advertisement sent to a prosecutor, Taichung authorities yesterday exposed to the media a bookmaking Web site offering odds on the outcome of the presidential election. Unfortunately, because the site is based outside of Taiwan, that's about as much as authorities can do about it.
The action comes just days after State Prosecutor-General Lu Ren-fa (
For a minimum wager of US$20, the Web site allows punters to bet on a lineup of the five candidates in the order of the number of votes they will get. Odds for the bets range from 3:1 to 184:1.
Punters are asked to remit their wagers to a bank account which prosecutors suspect is based in the US.
So far about one hundred gamblers have placed bets at the site, with the highest wager topping US$1,000, said prosecutor Liu Kuo-pin (劉國賓) of the Taichung District Prosecutors' Office.
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