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The bookie pushes an empty betting slip across the table to our undercover punter.

But what he expects him to write on it is not the name of a racehorse or greyhound.

He wants the name of a human being suffering from cancer. And the odds are all about the ­victim’s chances of survival.

“The longer the person lives, the more you can win,” he says with a sadistic grin.

Welcome to Death Alley, home of the sickest “game” in the world ...a macabre betting industry worth £40million a year.

High-rolling ­gamblers even visit cancer sufferers in hospital to size up their chances of dying.

And the life-or-death gamble comes with a disturbing corruption problem... doctors have been accused of cashing in by placing bets on their own patients then withdrawing treatment to “fix” deaths.

The evil Far East betting empire is run by rich mafia-style gangs through illegal back-street bookies in China and Taiwan.

(Image: Sinopix)

The rules are simple: punters predict the month a cancer sufferer will die with typical odds of 3-1. But if the patient passes away within a month, or survives longer than 12, the house wins.

You can even place accumulator bets on two or three “runners” to try to increase winnings.

Sunday Mirror investigators uncovered a bustling cancer betting trade in the city of ­Taichung in Western Taiwan, visited by thousands of Brits.

It’s centred on Xikia East Street, a row of 60 ordinary looking shops fronted, iron­ically, as clubs for old people.

But this is renowned as Death Alley. Within minutes, our ­reporters found a cancer ­bookie who introduced himself as Mr Ho. He wanted a name and a medical letter proving the ­patient’s condition.

As each terminally-ill person is identified, a gambling “pot” on them is established.

The minimum bet on the month of death is £40, but he revealed some gamblers placed stakes with his syndicate as high as £215,000.

“The most common bets are on three and six months, which let you triple your money”, he said.

In a bizarre twist, he revealed sufferers’ families receive 10 per cent of returns on all winning bets to ease the punters’ consciences.

Ho claimed his customers included victims’ relatives, ­police and doctors.

He said: “Originally, we brought them in for expert opinion on how ­people’s cancer was progressing.

"But once they realised how much they could make, they started betting themselves.”

(Image: Sinopix)

Life insurance agents are also involved, recommending the names of policy holders who have fallen ill.

Bookies have also found their own ways to fix results – with some of them now faking death certificates.

Ho said the cancer gambling frenzy took off about two years ago.

He bragged how he managed operations in other cities, estimating there were about 130-160 cancer-betting businesses across the country.

For young gangsters like Ho, the riches are great – a fact ­reflected by the fleet of luxury cars sitting outside the betting shops.

“I got into this ­originally to pay off my own gambling debts,” Ho said. “But my mother wants me to find a new line of work.”

Ho told how one syndicate took punters to see a dying grandmother in a poor neighbourhood of Taichung.

They discussed her prospects of dying as she lay there . One asked another: “What do you think? Two to three months?”

Ho added: “We used to do this all the time. You can tell a lot by just ­looking.

"But we’ve had to stop the visits now ­because a local journalist ­managed to get an interview with a patient.”

Police claim detectives are working round the clock to smash the gambling rackets. But there is little evidence of it.

One family approached by our investigators at a hospice in Taichung said they were well aware of the betting craze.

The hospice manager told us: “There’s nothing to stop anyone here from betting on anything.

"It is disgusting but the police don’t seem to be doing enough to root it out.”