Two Japanese and 11 Taiwanese nationals were indicted by prosecutors on Tuesday for engaging in illicit online gambling in Taiwan.



According to the indictment issued by the Shilin District Prosecutors Office, a Japanese man identified as Kinoshita and a Japanese woman known as Matsumura were prosecuted on charges of developing online gambling apps and making profits from online betting operations in Taiwan along with 11 Taiwanese employees.



The two Japanese nationals were responsible for running three companies -- Ganapati Taiwan Co., Ltd., Ganapati PLC, and another technology company -- registered in Taipei that offered apps to be used by online gambling websites, the indictment said.



Kinoshita and Matsumura had developed 36 such apps featuring different gambling games that were linked to 28 websites based in Thailand, Vietnam, China, and various European countries, while Ganapati Taiwan charged a 6-10 percent commission based on each wager made by online gamblers, it said.



It was discovered that the two engaged in their illicit business from Jan. 1, 2019 to July 6, 2020 and a total of NT$1.4 billion (US$48.9 million) was wagered over the period, the indictment said.



Although the duo argued that gamblers who had their IP based in Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea were blacklisted and had no access to the websites, prosecutors still deemed their online operations to be in contravention of Taiwanese law, it said.