Taiwanese Man Sentenced for Election Betting

A Taiwanese man has been given a $3,000 fine and a one-year suspended sentence for gambling on the country’s January 2024 elections.

The man was identified only by his surname, Chen. He was charged with using a cryptocurrency wagering platform to bet the equivalent of slightly more than US$500 on the election. 

The maximum sentence for such a crime is six months in prison and a 18,000 yuan fine (around US$3,000). However, according to local news outlet Liberty Times Net, the judge took into account Chen’s previously clean record and his cooperation with authorities in filing a guilty plea.

The Sentence 

Gambling has been illegal in Taiwan since it declared itself an independent country from China in 1949. However, as in many so-called grey area markets, prosecutions for online gamblers using offshore betting sites are relatively rare.

In this case, Taiwanese authorities took an extra dim view of election betting. They charged Chen with violations of the President and Vice President Election Recall act, which has specific provisions covering the illegality of election gambling. 

Chen admitted making two wagers on the January 13 election contest, which was won by former Vice President Lai Ching-te, representing the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).

In December 2023, Chen used cryptocurrency betting site Polymarket to place the bets. He placed $472 in crypto equivalent on Ko Wen-je of the Taiwan People’s Party to win the presidential race, and $60 on the DPP to win the most seats. 

The first bet lost, but the second bet came in – netting him a not-insignificant profit. 

Election Betting

The charge comes as part of a wider campaign against political gambling in the contested Asian country. 

At the start of this year, authorities conducted a series of raids, mostly in the city of New Taipei, where they seized $520,000 in cryptocurrency funds raised as profits through an election betting website. 

In total 28, people were arrested. Under Taiwanese law, the potential sentence for running a gambling platform that also allows election betting is up to five years in prison and a 90,000 yuan (US$15,000) fine. 

The government’s efforts included the banning of Polymarket through internet access restrictions and the closure of its Taiwanese domain registration. Nevertheless, an independent study claimed that some $700,000 in total was wagered on the elections from within the country. 

The issue of election betting is a controversial one around the world. Most countries that have legal and regulated gambling markets have some extra rules around this specific market, if not banning it outright. 

One country that didn’t for many years, but may introduce some new regulations in the near future, is the United Kingdom. In the country’s recent elections, a highly publicized scandal saw several politicians from the incumbent Conservative party accused of insider betting on the date of the election. 

Further investigations then discovered at least one Conservative party member who bet against himself to win his seat in Parliament. Sir Philip Davies, a member of parliament since 2005, allegedly bet £8000 ($10,200) that he would lose his seat in the July 4 election – which he duly did.