Gambling legality in Taiwan(esp in regards to poker)

[danger]

Hey guys,

I was wondering about legality of gambling in Taiwan. I thought it would be cool to organize a regular poker game at a local bar or cafe(or if that won't do, even a home game) but just wanted to see what the legal situation with that would be.

-D

[Okami]

I think with money on the table that may be a very bad idea.

[EigerMarcus]

The current state of the law in a nutshell:

The Criminal Code prohibits gambling in a public place. The Criminal Code itself does not define gambling, but opinion on the issue has defined it as occurring when parties engage in activities in which the creation of a debt is conditioned on an uncertain condition. This has been interpreted to include a broad scope of activities ands cover the placing and taking of bets.

The relevant Article for the prohibition of gambling is Article 266 of the Criminal Code. It provides that a person who gambles in a "public" place or a "place" open to the public shall be punished unless the item for which he gambles is one to provide temporary amusement - the case of a "friendly wager". What is a "public" place or a "place" open to the public has been subject to much discussion by the courts and authorities here: and for example, gambling online from your home on an offshore website has seen people detained/arrested in Taiwan. The hosting of gambling will trigger Article 268 of the Criminal Code. This Article provides that an individual who for the purposes of gain furnishes a location for gambling or assembles persons to gamble shall be punished.

Recent high profile criminal conviction for running a poker tournament: http://goo.gl/2gOWj (Chinese only) The original case goes back a few years.

The draft of the Gaming Act - this will regulate casinos and gambling in Taiwan - should make its way to the Legislative Yuan this year. It will not legalize behavior currently prohibited but it will provide the legal and regulatory regime for the proposed offshore casinos, allow a framework for future changes, and likely clarify prohibited behavior further.

That is the state of the law here anyway.

[Nuit]

Hey guys,

I was wondering about legality of gambling in Taiwan. I thought it would be cool to organize a regular poker game at a local bar or cafe(or if that won't do, even a home game) but just wanted to see what the legal situation with that would be.

Home games exist & are the way to go. Unlikely you're going to have a problem there, so long as the stakes are relatively small (the ones I've been to are normally $200-$500 buy-in).

[sensAsian]

a poker game was busted in my area recently. the story i heard was everyone go arrested. all players were fined $1000nt and the guy running it was fined $12,000nt. that's it.

[bumclouds]

The police are always doing gambling raids in the KTV-girl-type bars and also temples around my house. One time they did a huge raid and I counted 33 police vehicles from my rooftop.

They've raided one particular nightclub several times but it's still operating. Don't know how.