Sat, Jul 01, 2006 page20

• World Cup: Real Cup fever at a gambling den near you

  • By Jules Quartly / STAFF REPORTER
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  The real World Cup action in Taiwan is found in a faded coffee shop where regular customers take the stairs to a second-floor gambling den. Here there is dim lighting, smoke, the clack of mahjong tiles, men bent over their cards and a TV tuned to the soccer channel.

  Like some other Ximending (西門町) coffee shops, this one is a front for betting and it's the right place to come if you want to place a wager on the outcome of a World Cup game.

  Though gambling is illegal in Taiwan, it's intensely popular and bets can be placed on elections, pigeon or horse racing, fighting crickets and just about anything else -- if you have the connections.

  And this partly explains why watching the World Cup, in the soccer desert of Taiwan, is so popular. A lot of betting is going on. According to a recent report in the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times' sister paper), the extraordinary sum of NT$3 billion (US$92.65 million) will be placed on the results of games at this year's tournament.

  The betting has heated up to a boiling point now the quarter-finals have arrived, the paper said, adding most of the business is controlled by gangs in the south and the middle of the country.

  Punters either have gangster contacts, go to local syndicates based in illegal gambling dens or use Web sites to place their bets.

  A self-described "captain" of the Bamboo Union gang, Xiao Ge, said the main problem for punters was "trust." It's not hard to find someone who will take a bet, he said, but whether they pay out is another matter.

  The safer option is to use an Internet connection and go to one of the world's estimated 2,500 gambling sites. UK bookmaker Ladbrokes estimated around US$2.8 million will be waged on the Cup this year.

  Some local bettors use third-party payment companies such as the eBay-owned PayPal to settle bets, but others use their contacts outside the country to place and collect money.

  One of the reasons why the World Cup is such a popular competition for local gamblers is that it is perceived to be free of match-fixing.

  Before the tournament began, FIFA set up a task force to monitor gambling patterns. Players and match officials are also made to sign a form pledging not to wager on games.

  LUCKY NO. 7

  Back to the beautiful game and the quarter-finals stage. Tonight England takes on Portugal, and Brazil meets France.

  After David Beckham snuffed out Ecuador with a magical free kick, the Liberty Times came up with seven reasons why England would win the Cup.

  * The England captain wears the No. 7 shirt.

  * England collected seven points in the group stage.

  * "Beckham," "winners," "captain," "England" and "Ecuador" all have seven letters.

  * To make it to the final England must win seven games at the World Cup (not true, it drew against Sweden).

  * England has had seven coaches since it last reached the semi-finals (in 1990).

  * The final will be played on the seventh day of the week (Sunday) in the seventh month (July).

  Gamblers may be impressed by these figures but real soccer fans will not be moved. English supporters in particular may be thinking they will be lucky to advance much further.

  Their players have looked dog-tired at the end of games, whereas the other teams -- even France -- seem to be coasting.

  For the record, I suspect Beckham was actually exhausted in the game against Ecuador, rather than ill, which was why he puked before coming off.

  Perhaps wily England has been saving itself for the later games? Germany and the rest may instead run out of puff after their whirlwind performances to date.

  If it's a contest between coaches, Portugal's Luiz Felipe Scolari will win hands down against England's Sven-Goran Eriksson.

  The latter has brought a 17-year-old he's so far been scared to use (Theo Walcott), whereas Scolari has had three successive victories against England going into this match -- including Brazil's quarter-final victory against the Three Lions in Japan in 2002. Two years ago Portugal beat England in Euro 2004.

  But Portugal's victory over the Netherlands was an expensive one in terms of players sent off and on yellow cards, so England does have a chance.

  In the other last quarter-final showdown, Zinedine Zidane and the French once again take on the Brazilians, in a replay of the 1998 final.

  This will be the last chance for those tiring legs in France's World Cup winning team to run themselves into the ground and succeed on center stage. It could be just enough motivation for an upset against a confident Brazil.
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