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Police shut down gambling network with $384 million in transactions

Published: 19 Jun. 2025, 15:52 Updated: 19 Jun. 2025, 19:26

A screenshot of an illegal gambling site [SOUTH CHUNGCHEONG POLICE AGENCY]

Korean police have shut down a major illegal online gambling ring that employed female dealers and raked in hundreds of billions of won in illicit profits.

Police estimate that over 530 billion won ($384 million) was transacted on the sites over the past five years, with at least 27.1 billion won in illicit profits pocketed by the operators.

A total of 32 individuals have been arrested for violating the National Sports Promotion Act and other related laws, according to the South Chungcheong police agency’s cybercrime investigation unit on Thursday. Of those, 13 have been formally detained.

The ring, operated by an unnamed mastermind, had eight illegal gambling sites based in the Philippines, Vietnam and Cambodia from January 2019 to July 2024, police said.

Investigators found that the mastermind and his associates recruited clients through the encrypted messaging app Telegram. Potential participants were first vetted before being allowed to place bets.

The organization was divided into promotional and operational teams, mimicking a corporate structure to recruit gamblers and run the sites, which primarily offered sports betting.

To expand their clientele, the group also ran card games such as baccarat, employing female dealers to appeal to male users. Clicking on promotional images of women on the site would direct users to real-time gambling games. The platforms allowed users to deposit and withdraw funds and even featured live sports streaming for real-time betting.

Users could deposit and withdraw money through the site and place bets while watching live sports broadcasts.

The investigation began in late 2023 after police received a tip that teenagers were being hired as part-timers to send advertising messages for gambling sites. This led to the arrest of six individuals in the promotional branch of the operation, four of whom were jailed.

This year, authorities tracked down another 26 individuals in the operations team, arresting nine more.

A screenshot of an illegal gambling site [SOUTH CHUNGCHEONG POLICE AGENCY]

Police said the group modeled itself on corporate business practices, merging and restructuring gambling sites and shutting down unprofitable ones. They also launched new sites under subsidiary-style arrangements to expand the network and used burner phones and bank accounts to avoid detection.

Authorities have blocked access to the gambling sites through the Korea Communications Standards Commission and seized assets worth 9.2 billion won, including cars, cash and real estate. The National Tax Service has been notified to recover illegal proceeds, and an investigation into the funding sources of users is ongoing.

Police plan to continue a special crackdown on illegal online gambling through the end of October.

“We will sternly punish both operators and participants of online gambling,” said a spokesperson for the South Chungcheong police. “For underage involvement, which is harder to detect through enforcement alone, we’ll work with schools and local communities to enhance preventive efforts.”

Translated from the JoongAng Ilbo using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.
BY SHIN JIN-HO [[email protected]]