A man's attempt to win NT$1 million by living with 100 poisonous snakes for 10 days doesn't amount to illegal gambling, the Shihlin District Prosecutors' Office said yesterday.
Earlier this year, Lee Ching-feng (
"Such an activity is not gambling," Chen Wen-chi (
The performance was mired in controversy after Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南) brought the event to an abrupt end on its third day. Chen told police the stunt was dangerous and should be shut down under the Social Order Maintenance Law.
The show was held at an underground shopping mall near Taipei Railway Station beginning on March 30 to promote the shopping area's first anniversary.
Lin, a 28-year-old air-conditioner repairman, was offered a NT$1 million prize if he could survive for 10 days with 100 poisonous snakes in a room built behind a display window. Among the 100 snakes, the organizer claimed there were 50 for whose venom there was no known antidote.
Chen said that the performance was a significant threat to Lin's life and that the "death contract," as Lin's undertaking had been described in the media, was "obviously in absolute violation of acceptable social conventions." Article 82 of the Social Order Maintenance Law bans public performances that violate "acceptable social conventions."
A court ruled, however, that such an activity was not punishable under Article 82, arguing that living with snakes did not violate acceptable social conventions.The police then charged Lin and the organizer with gambling.
Asked for comment about the prosecutors' decision, Chen said yesterday that gambling was not the allegation he had previously made. But he also said he was "surprised" by the previous ruling that the activity did not violate acceptable social conventions.
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