Police arrest a gang of criminals who target young people through illegal gambling websites

Police have arrested a criminal group that ran illegal gambling websites for young people.

The Daejeon Metropolitan Police Agency’s Cyber ​​Investigation Bureau said on Friday that it had arrested 10 people and detained nine of them for operating gambling websites.

According to police, the gambling ring targeted teenagers with nine simple, gamified gambling websites where participants could deposit money into an account and receive in-game currency in return.

The gambling ring provided up to 500 billion won (US$364 million) worth of gambling money through the gambling websites and used around 10,000 deposit accounts to operate. Police analyzed the checking accounts and confirmed that 171 youths were involved in the gambling activities.

The investigation into the remaining accounts is still ongoing.

Police began investigating in January after finding an online post that said, “There is a friend who demands gambling money from my son, who attends middle school in Daejeon.” They then made the operations office of the gambling site and arrested the main operator and those who provided the ghost accounts. Police also applied for a seizure order of 353 million won in criminal proceeds.

A police officer said: “Many students accessed the sites out of curiosity after being encouraged to do so by friends.” The gambling ring deliberately developed simpler games to attract teenagers, such as football betting, odd or even games and ranked games.

Among the teenagers caught by police were 163 high school students and eight middle school students. Police said that because of the games’ simplicity, many students accessed the websites even during their school breaks.

The investigation found that the student who bet the largest amount lost 12 million won.

Police filed criminal charges against five students who had deposited more than 5 million won or were repeat offenders, while 35 were given summary proceedings and 131 were released with a warning. Police plan to refer all students who gambled to an advisory committee for review and refer them to the Korea Problem Gambling Agency for rehabilitation.

BY KIM MIN YOUNG [[email protected]]