Taiwanese police have arrested two men for running gambling pools on the year-end local elections, part of a wider crackdown on illegal money flows before the vote.

• One website took bets on which party would win the most mayor and county chief seats, with a countdown clock to the closing deadline.
• Bettors could pay by bank transfer, credit card, e-payment, or crypto, and police followed the money to arrest the man collecting the cash.
• A second ring, in Changhua, ran bets over messaging apps on whether turnout in the Taichung mayoral race would top 1.47 million votes.
• The wider sweep, run over about a week with prosecutors and investigators, netted 408 gambling cases and more than 1,000 people, covering casinos, lottery pools, and online betting.
• Total wagers traced across all the cases ran into billions of Taiwan dollars, dwarfing the cash actually seized.

Outlook: The pre-election crackdown on gangs, guns, gambling, and dirty money continues, so more election betting arrests are likely before voting day.