Police Arrest Illegal Bar and Prostitution Business Owners at Hotel Following Ban on Entertainment Establishment Gatherings

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Jung-yoon] A group was arrested by the police for illegally converting hotel rooms into entertainment bars without permission and mediating prostitution after entertainment establishments in the Seoul metropolitan area were banned from operating.

According to the police on the 15th, the Seocho Police Station in Seoul arrested three people, including the business owner Min and two intermediaries, at around 11:40 p.m. the previous day at a hotel in Seocho-dong on charges of violating the Act on the Punishment of Acts of Arranging Sexual Traffic. The business owner was also charged with operating an unlicensed entertainment bar.

They are accused of providing alcohol and side dishes to men who visited after receiving business notification text messages and arranging for them to engage in prostitution with female hostesses. The police plan to notify the local district office of six people, including a female hostess in her 30s and two hotel employees, for violating the Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act. Since there was no evidence that prostitution actually took place on site, one man who visited the establishment was not booked.

The police received a tip that prostitution and unlicensed entertainment bar operations were taking place in the hotel and formed a joint crackdown team to conduct the operation.

Meanwhile, six types of entertainment facilities in the metropolitan area, including entertainment bars, danran bars, emotional bars, colatecs, hunting pochas, and holdem pubs, have been under a gathering ban since April 12. This is expected to continue until the 4th of next month, when the current social distancing system is maintained.