Middle School Student as Mastermind of Hundred-Million Won Online Gambling...Elementary Students Also Betting

Opening Gambling Servers on SNS... Invitation Links Sent to Peers
Among 98 Gambling Suspects, 96 Are 'Middle and High School Students'

A teenage gang was arrested by the police for opening a gambling server on social networking services (SNS) and inducing internet gambling targeting about 1,500 people, including elementary school students and other youths, receiving over 200 million won in remittances and pocketing about 20 million won of it.

On the 18th, the Cyber Crime Investigation Unit of the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency announced that they had arrested A, a man in his 20s who operated the gambling site, on charges of opening a gambling site, gambling, and violating the Electronic Financial Transactions Act, and had booked 16 others without detention, including B, a middle school student who was the mastermind, and C, a high school student who managed the server.

Overview of Middle School Student's Gambling Crime Mastermind [Image source=Provided by Busan Police Agency, Yonhap News]

A and B are accused of creating a gambling server on an SNS with server creation functions from December 2022 to October 2023, then sending invitation links to peer groups to participate in 21 types of gambling games such as baccarat and roulette in exchange for money, receiving 213 million won in remittances and pocketing about 20 million won. The crime began as a conspiracy between B and C. They were interested in games and data recovery, had considerable computer skills, became friends in an internet community, and then collaborated to create a gambling server on the game SNS called 'Discord.'

B was in charge of overall operations, while C developed and maintained the server. They posted recruitment ads for staff on the gambling server to attract accomplices. The adult mastermind A, who was arrested, initially was a gambling user but became an operator after applying through the staff recruitment notice. B and C recruited middle and high school students or university students as staff who charged and exchanged game money, and to avoid police tracking, they bought bank accounts used for receiving money transfers from five middle and high school students at 100,000 to 200,000 won per account.

In particular, the police reported that when B came under police investigation, he shared the investigation details with the adult mastermind A and even helped him operate the gambling server alone. Most of the suspects charged with gambling (96 out of 98) were teenagers, including one elementary school student and two female middle school students. The highest amount bet by one person was 2.18 million won, and one high school student was confirmed to have deposited and bet 325 times over four months. Users of the illegal gambling server accessed it not only through invitation links but also through friends’ introductions or banner ads on other game servers.

This is the gambling server usage screen they created on Discord.
[Image source: Provided by Busan Police Agency, Yonhap News]

Jeon Byung-ha, team leader of the Cyber Crime Investigation Unit at the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency, said, "The problem has become serious as youths have moved from being lured into illegal gambling through advertisements on SNS to directly operating gambling servers and even providing bank accounts," adding, "We will respond with full force from crackdowns to rehabilitation and education to prevent the spread of cyber gambling among youths."

The police, having shut down the gambling server, notified guardians of 96 youth gambling users showing signs of addiction and linked them to guidance programs. They also requested related organizations to improve the system so that guardian verification is possible when subscribing to web hosting services necessary for operating gambling sites.

Meanwhile, youth gambling is emerging as a serious social problem not only due to gambling addiction but also because of secondary crimes such as school violence and extortion related to it. The police revealed that the number of youths caught as gambling offenders surged 208.3% from 12 in 2022 to 37 last year. There are also cases where gambling is a cause for youths being reported as perpetrators or victims of school violence.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency has been conducting a 'Youth Gambling Eradication Relay Challenge' campaign since last month to inform the public about the dangers of illegal cyber gambling targeting youths and to block its spread. Seoul Police will continue the campaign in cooperation with the Korea Center on Gambling Problems Prevention and Treatment until September 17, the 'Day for Eradication of Gambling Addiction.'