Taiwan’s illegal gambling networks are never busier than during the Major League Baseball season. Some gangsters have taken to carrying their laptop computers with them at all times so they can receive inside betting tips around the clock. The increase in gambling has even led to bookmakers closing the accounts of gamblers who were winning too much. In the hope of recouping their losses, other bookmakers have attempted to jinx their clients by giving them account names like SUZUKI or 4747, which rhyme with “go lose, go lose” in Chinese.
In recent years, online gambling has grown in popularity due to the convenience of the Internet. Wang Chien-ming’s strong performance in the Major League has even tempted some white-collar workers and gangsters who do not normally follow baseball to try their hand at gambling. According to one gangster, social events quickly turn boring if the conversation isn’t about baseball. He said that his friends are so familiar with batting averages and earned run averages they sound like professional baseball commentators. Yet they enjoy talking about gambling odds even more.
The popularity of baseball gambling has even seen some gangsters, who could at one time only ever recognize the English alphabet, learn to pronounce the names of teams like the Yankees and the Dodgers. Amusingly, the gangsters then break into Hokklo to give their opinion on a game.
There will always be winners and losers when it comes to gambling and there are many gangster gamblers who bet against bookmakers using inside betting tips. However, if the gamblers win more than the bookmakers each week, the bookmakers eventually close these accounts to prevent further losses. Bookmakers have been known to let each other know if a client switches to another gambling Web site. They then assign account numbers like SUZUKI or 4747 to bring bad luck on the gamblers and try to recoup their losses.
Apart from this new phenomenon, some gamblers have even turned to their pets in search of betting tips. One local gang leader picks his pet dog up everyday and sits in front of his computer and says over and over again to his dog “I will give you a chicken leg if this tip is correct.” He then writes the names of the competing teams for that day on paper and gets his dog to randomly pick from them.
Another gangster has proven to be even more creative and places the names of the competing teams in his Java sparrow’s cage everyday. He has supposedly won tens of thousands of dollars in a row by this method, which has almost convinced him to make a golden cage for the bird — yet another example of some of the absurd behavior that gambling can inspire.
(LIBERTY TIMES, TRANSLATED BY DREW CAMERON)
美國大聯盟職棒例行賽事期間，台灣的地下賭盤下注情形卻是火熱不已，一些道上兄弟筆記型電腦不離身，隨時根據接收明牌簽注，卻也衍生部分組頭因大失血被迫關掉賭客帳戶，或是乾脆以SUZUKI或是4747（諧音輸去輸去）的帳戶給賭客觸霉頭，以盼能扳回一城，出現不少光怪陸離的現象。
近幾年拜網路便利之賜，網路簽賭持續熱度，尤其旅美球星王建民在大聯盟發光，一些平時不看棒球的白領階級、甚至道上兄弟也加入，一位兄弟就形容，最近與友人喝酒聊天，話題扯不到職棒，場面肯定冷清，一談到球員打擊率或防禦率，每個人彷彿都是專業球評，談及賭盤賠率、讓分更是熱絡。
影響所及，有些原本ABC分開來會唸，組合起來就看不懂的兄弟，這陣子不僅筆電不離身，隨時掌握賽事狀況方便簽注外，連洋基、道奇等大聯盟隊伍的英文隊名都能琅琅上口，還能轉換成台語交換心得，場景令人莞爾。
但簽注一定有輸贏，許多兄弟賭客每天根據所謂的明牌與組頭對賭，但每週一次對帳時若是賭客贏多輸少，收牌組頭勢必失血，為此竟有組頭關掉賭客帳戶，意思就是希望大家不要再輸贏，若賭客換到另個網站簽注，彼此間有聯繫的組頭也會口耳相傳，給個諸如SUZUKI或是4747（諧音輸去輸去）的帳戶給對方觸霉頭，希望能扳回一城。
除了這個以往鮮少見到的現象外，有些賭客求明牌竟動到寵物身上，一位道上角頭每天下注前會抱著寵物犬在電腦前，念念有詞的說，「等會兒報牌準的話，讓你吃雞腿」，再將當天對戰組合的隊伍名稱寫在紙上讓小狗隨機叼選。
另名道上兄弟更鮮，每天將對戰隊伍放在鳥籠內讓白文鳥叼選，據說一連贏了數十萬，讓他差點要為小鳥打造一個金鳥籠，各種光怪陸離的現象，讓人看了也傻眼。 （自由時報記者許國楨）
A: It’s a pity that I can’t go to Australian pop diva Kylie Minogue’s concert. B: Why not? A: Hit Japanese singer Kenshi Yonezu is staging two shows at the Taipei Arena this weekend, and I already bought tickets long ago. B: Wow, isn’t he one of the most popular Japanese singers in recent years? A: And Yonezu’s megahit “Lemon” topped the Billboard Japan Hot 100’s year-end chart in 2018 and 2019 consecutively. A: 我不能去澳洲歌后凱莉米諾的演唱會真可惜。 B: 為什麼？ A: 日本人氣歌手米津玄師週末將在小巨蛋熱唱兩場，我早早就買票啦。 B: 哇他可是日本近年來最紅的歌手之一。 A: 米津的神曲《Lemon》甚至還在2018、2019年連續稱霸告示牌日本單曲榜年度冠軍！ (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times／台北時報張迪)
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