Police step up crackdown on election-related gambling

The CIB under the National Police Agency (NPA) has just detained not just stepped up the fight against the political gambling but also the traditional gambling.

Under the heat of the crackdown, some of the gambling syndicate heads have moved to Xiamen in China’s Fujian Province and are attempting to manage their illegal operations in Taiwan via telephone or other modern telecommunications equipment.

CIB officials said their agents have obtained the assistance of telecommunications companies to monitor the phone calls of these gambling kingpins in order to expose their identities and bring them to justice.

They said some with political influence have cashed in on the lucrative profits from gambling.

Tu Jui-yu, who used to be an aide to a former legislator, was detained for using his ginseng store as a front to recruit people and train them to engage in gambling schemes.

Cooperating with members of the organized crime, Tu and his partner had placed substance into dices that will consistently come up certain set of numbers.

They also mark the playing cards or tiles of mahjong that can be identified by their people wear certain kinds of glasses.

CIB officials said this was part of the nationwide campaign in which law enforcement agents across Taiwan have stepped up a nationwide sweep against organized crime, especially against underground gambling operations, to prevent them from hooking up with election results.

Police have arrested nearly 1,700 people involved in different forms of gambling, in three waves of crackdowns around Taiwan since Feb. 23, according to the NPA.

Among those taken into custody were more than 400 gambling syndicate heads, illegal lottery operators and owners of gambling Web sites.

In addition to offering various types of gambling games, many of these illegal operations also accept bets on the results of the presidential election, with the total bets expected to amount to billions of New Taiwan dollars by the eve of the election.

Supported by police, prosecutors in Yunlin County raided 30 underground gambling operations in Changhua, Yunlin and Chiayi in central Taiwan area last week.

The operators had taken over NT$50 million worth of bets, including NT$10 million in cash, on the presidential election outcome.

One operator was detained but was later released on bail of NT$2 million.

The prosecutors have issued a warrant for the arrest of another man known to be the head of another gambling operation.

The prosecutors office is in the process of questioning 70 suspects nabbed in the crackdown.

On March 5, police in the central city of Taichung also raided a betting station run by a Mark Six lottery operator, Chen Hsiu-mei, who had been accepting bets on the outcome of the presidential election. The 39-year-old woman’s bookkeeping records showed that bets received by her station during a single day amounted to over NT$10 million, and that she was to take 5 percent of all the winnings as commission.

The prosecutors in Taichung has issued an injunction prohibiting the suspect from leaving the country, while continuing the investigation in an attempt to track down the kingpin of the gambling syndicate to which she belongs.

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