Taichung authorities on Thursday detained alleged members of an online gambling operation masquerading as a high-tech cloud computing company, the scale of which and the high wages it offered alerted police to the operation.
In the raid, 56 suspects were detained for questioning, including a 37-year-old woman surnamed Lin (林), who investigators said was the leader of the operation, which catered mainly to Chinese in China and Southeast Asia.
Suspects were still being questioned yesterday.
Investigators said that Lin — using the business experience and technical acumen she acquired from her previous job as a customer service manager for a leading online gaming company — started a cloud computing service company earlier this year.
The company was registered as a cloud storage and software services provider, but allegedly made its profit by running gambling Web sites that offered roulette, baccarat, sic bo (骰寶, precious dice), slot machines, lottery and sports betting, Taichung Sixth Police Precinct Chief Lin Shu-hui (林樹徽) said.
A total of 245 PCs and seven notebook computers were found at the company’s office inside a commercial high-rise building in Taichung’s Situn District (西屯).
After reviewing the company’s files, investigators discerned that the alleged gambling business’ server is in China and that the company was officially registered as a gaming company in the Philippines.
Investigators said the company operated on membership, with more than 10,000 paid members, and also had a VIP service for high rollers.
They estimated the company made more than NT$100 million (US$3.16 million) since it began operations in March, with monthly revenue of between NT$20 million and NT$50 million.
“The company’s office was lavish and it was run like an established high-tech enterprise, with more than 200 employees working in three shifts,” Lin Shu-hui said. “They were divided into customer service managers, information technology engineers, programmers, accountants and other specialists,” he added.
He said the company offered high wages with a guaranteed base salary for new staff of NT$40,000 per month.
Many of the employees are university graduates, with some holding master’s degrees, Lin Shu-hui said, adding that monthly bonuses and incentives meant that middle-level staff could earn as much as NT$100,000 per month.
The company operated a sophisticated online gambling operation and provided low to high-level customer service, depending on a member’s betting volume, Lin Shu-hui said, adding that the company even had managers catering to VIP members.
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