Zero tolerance
Three players in the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL), a top-level league in Taiwan, have been suspended and fined for playing online poker. The players – Guo Yu-yan, Chen Guan-hao, and Wu Yu-cheng – are all members of TSG Hawks.
“Engaging in online gambling is not a sanctioned activity for players, which has tarnished Taiwan’s professional baseball,” the league said in a statement. “Baseball clubs must impose better internal monitoring and instruct players on the code of conduct.”
“We ask all clubs and players to uphold the good image and core values of professional baseball, and to know what these mean for our society.”
Guo received a 10-game suspension and a NT$100,000 (USD$3,270) fine, while Chen and Wu were suspended five games and fined NT$50,000 (USD$1,635) each.
According to the CPBL, the discrepancy in punishment was because Guo was the one who introduced online poker to Chen and Wu in March. Guo himself was allegedly brought to the games by an agent at Taiyu Sports Agency.
Taiyu Sports Agency denies any involvement, as does Cheng Ming-yang, the agent in question. The agency did say, though, that it will fully cooperate with the league, the players’ union, and the team.
Gambling off limits in Taiwan
Most gambling is illegal in Taiwan; the only authorized forms of gambling are state-run lotteries. In 2009, the Offshore Islands Development Act was amended to allow casinos on Kinmen, Matsu, and Penghu islands pending voter referenda, but little progress has been made.
In 2022, Taiwan began blocking residents from accessing online poker websites. It is, of course, difficult to police every gambling website that comes and goes. It stands to reason that the baseball players may have played in a private game on a peer-to-peer app or the like.
The rules against gambling in the CPBL are strict. Unlike in American sports leagues, where players, by and large, have the freedom to do what they want in their downtime, CPBL players are kept on a tight leash. According to league regulations, “Team staff and players are prohibited from visiting inappropriate places, including brothels, gambling arcades, and any establishments that could damage the reputation of the league, the club, or the individual.”
In August of last year, Wei Chuan Dragons shortstop Tseng Chuan-Sheng was suspended for 10 games after it was found out that he was arrested during a police raid of an illegal casino in January. He claimed that the game he was playing, Texas Hold’em, was not gambling. The Dragons ended up cutting him days later.
Just a few days after that, photos of Dragons players Kuo Tian-Shin and Chang Cheng-Yu and the Fubon Guardians’ Tseng Jyun-Yue playing poker in licensed card rooms appeared online, leading to their suspensions.
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