"Excessive Regulation Causes Use of Illegal Sites"
Promotion of Inclusion of eSports and Mixed Martial Arts
Current Refund Rate Should Be Raised from 60% to 80% Range
The Reform New Party pledged on the 7th to ease regulations related to payout rates and others to revitalize Sports Toto. It pointed out that strict regulations act as a cause for increased use of illegal private sites.
Kim Yong-nam, chairman of the Policy Committee, stated at a press conference at the National Assembly in the afternoon, "We will amend the Act on the Integrated Supervision of Gambling Industry to ensure that Sports Toto is not subject to total sales volume regulation," and added, "We will also raise the current payout rate of about 60% to around 80% by amending the National Sports Promotion Act."
Chairman Kim pointed out, "In the case of illegal private Sports Toto, some places offer payout rates up to 90%," and said, "It might be natural for users to flock to those sites."
He continued, "Regulations such as total sales volume limits, low payout rates, and excessively restrictive sports categories are driving users away to illegal Sports Toto sites," emphasizing, "We need to attract users in the illegal domain back to legal Sports Toto and ensure that the profits flow into the entire sports sector."
According to the Reform New Party, the cumulative revenue from Sports Toto from 2001 to 2022 is approximately 17.4 trillion KRW. Most of the revenue is allocated to the National Sports Promotion Fund, which is used for fostering community sports and sports projects.
Reform New Party Policy Announcement(Seoul=Yonhap News) Reporter Han Sang-gyun = Kim Yong-nam, Policy Committee Chairman of the Reform New Party, is announcing the party's policy at the National Assembly on the 5th. 2024.3.5
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On the other hand, according to a 2021 study by the Korea Institute of Criminology, the scale of illegal Sports Toto with servers overseas is estimated at 22.8 trillion KRW annually.
Chairman Kim said, "This is not about promoting gambling, but about bringing users who have already moved to illegal private Sports Toto, which has grown much larger than the legal sector, back to official Sports Toto," adding, "The purpose is to promote the development of Korea's sports industry."
Furthermore, the party plans to expand the Sports Toto target sports to include eSports and mixed martial arts. Currently, the sports covered by Sports Toto are soccer, baseball, basketball, volleyball, and golf. Since the most betting in illegal Sports Toto occurs in eSports and mixed martial arts, the plan is to include these sports to revitalize the market.
Chairman Kim explained, "There may be criticism that this expands the gambling industry, but the average participation amount per person for Sports Toto targeting the K League is only 4,926 KRW, and for baseball, it is just 4,128 KRW," adding, "The majority of users enjoy Sports Toto responsibly with small amounts alongside sports, and the revenue is used for the overall development of sports."
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