• By Wang Ting-chuan and Jason Pan / Staff reporters

A group of information technology (IT) engineers behind the operation of three Taiwan-based gambling Web sites, who had handled transactions totaling NT$4.76 billion (US$148.86 million), have been convicted by the New Taipei District Court on gambling charges.

The five IT engineers were headed by a man surnamed Chan (詹), a National Taiwan University (NTU) graduate and founder of a new high-tech company, who got fellow NTU graduates to develop apps and engage in the online gambling business, the ruling said.

All five were convicted of contravening the Criminal Code by “making profit by furnishing a place or assembling people to gamble.”

Photo: Chen Wei-tzu, Taipei Times

Chan was sentenced to six months in prison and required to pay a NT$150,000 fine.

Three were given five-month sentences, with three years probation.

Another defendant who was considered a principal figure, surnamed Huang (黃), was handed a six-month sentence and ordered to pay a fine of NT$90,000.

Huang has to serve the prison term, since he has previous criminal convictions, the ruling said.

Evidence showed that Chan set up online gambling Web sites based in Taipei and New Taipei City, supervised the Web sites’ design and operations, hired and paid for IT staff, and managed the daily gambling and casino games.

The other three IT engineers were responsible for registering the Web sites, doing regular test runs, graphic design and formatting for the Web sites, setting up an online platform and wallets for money storage and transactions for clients, investigators said.

Evidence showed that Huang held the regional operating rights for IWIN gaming and registered a company to run the payment service via a third party, enabling gamblers to store money through a virtual account.

These gambling Web sites mainly offer games where customers play and bet money, such as slot machines, baccarat, poker and other card games.

When customers win money, they can request to receive their winnings, which would be paid out to their account through a third-party payment platform, investigators said.

Judges said they handed suspended sentences to the four main figures, because they had admitted to the offenses and had no previous criminal record.

Illegal profits from Chan and Huang, worth NT$1.5 million and NT$500,000 respectively, were also seized. All five were ordered to pay fines.

The investigation found that the gambling operation had generated combined betting and money transactions of more than NT$4.76 billion since it began operations in 2021.

“All five suspects have the skills and training backgrounds to earn a regular living, but they chose to work together to run a gambling business and earn profits by enticing people to gamble… Their work promoted gambling, reaping financial gains by playing chance games, which led to more unethical behavior and deteriorating social conditions,” the judges said in their ruling.