Taiwanese gambling ace Dai Zi-lang died of a heart attack at his home last Thursday, aged 64.

His death happened on the eve of the Lunar New Year. Relatives of Dai confirmed the news on Wednesday and said that he had undergone heart surgery in the past. They were saddened and working with students from his gambling school to hold a low-profile funeral.

Born Huang Shu-yi, the man known as the “Gambling God of Taiwan” once told Apple Daily Taiwan in a 2018 interview that he had earned a lot from the stock market in the late 1980s, but had then lost tens of millions of dollars after it crashed, leaving him with heavy debts.

He got a divorce and embarked on professional gambling with a photo of his son in his wallet. Around the same time, he coined the new name Dai Zi-lang, which sounded like “a wolf carrying a son.”

While traveling in the United States, Dai bought the book “Beat the Dealer” at a Las Vegas store. From its tips, he picked up the skill of counting cards when playing blackjack and won NT$50 million within three years, clearing all his debts. The price of winning so much money, however, was that he became blacklisted by 200 casinos across the globe.

His fame led to the nickname, “Gambling God of Taiwan,” and Dai started his own school to teach people how to gamble and to win.

During one lesson, Dai told students about a self-professed “Gambling God” named Ku who had learned gambling skills from him more than 10 years ago and yet had stolen money from him. The claim prompted a person known as “Gambling God Ku” to accuse Dai of defamation, saying he did not know Dai back then.

Ku wanted to haul Dai to court, but prosecutors found that Dai was telling the truth, though because of the passage of time, he might have confused the two people, given the same name for both. Dai was not prosecuted in the end.

He last made news three years ago. At the time, he took 480 million won and 473,000 bhat from a South Korean casino, and carted all the prize money in cash back to Taiwan, whereupon customs confiscated everything as he had failed to declare the monies.

Dai then complained that customs officers were spending too much time counting the cash on the spot. He decided to give it all away as “taxes” for Taiwan, saying he was in a rush to play mahjong with friends.

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