Taipei Timeas
Date: Jan 10, 2016
By: Jason Pan  /  Staff reporter

Former national basketball team player Chien Chia-hung (簡嘉宏) was among 18 people taken into custody on Friday when police raided an alleged illegal gambling den at a residential building in New Taipei City’s Yonghe District (永和).

Chien was among 15 alleged gamblers apprehended during the raid, along with the three alleged proprietors of the establishment, which was running Texas hold’em poker and mahjong games in which people allegedly placed bets with money and poker chips.

Yonghe District Police Precinct officials said they confiscated poker chips valued at NT$8 million (US$238,799), bank drafts and checks valued at NT$2 million and NT$700,000 in cash.

Chien was playing poker, had exchanged NT$90,000 cash for poker chips and had lost about NT$50,000, police quoted him as saying.

Chien, 28, retired last year after playing for 10 years in the Super Basketball League.     [FULL  STORY]