Teenagers Addicted to Gambling... One in Three Gambling Offenders Is a Teenager

6-Month Intensive Crackdown Results in 2,925 Arrests
Youth Offenders Number Highest at 1,035

#The Cyber Investigation Unit of the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency arrested 16 individuals who received 213 million KRW after setting up a gambling site, detaining one of them. Among these suspects were two teenagers with exceptional coding and server management skills. Additionally, the police identified 96 teenagers involved in gambling activities.

#The Cyber Investigation Unit of the Daejeon Metropolitan Police Agency also arrested eight operators of gambling sites that used simple rules such as odd-even, ladder, and penalty kicks to quickly determine winners and losers and facilitate cash exchanges, detaining six of them. Thirty-three teenagers who gambled on these sites were also caught.

The National Police Agency’s National Investigation Headquarters announced on the 25th that from September 25 last year to March 31 this year, over a period of about six months, they conducted a “Special Crackdown on Cyber Gambling Targeting Teenagers,” arresting 2,925 people and detaining 75 of them.

Among the 2,925 suspects, 2,358 (80.6%) were users involved in gambling activities, while 567 (19.4%) were involved in producing, operating, or advertising gambling sites. The police recovered 61.9 billion KRW in criminal proceeds, applied for payment suspension on 142 proxy bank accounts, and requested the blocking of 68 gambling sites.

A teenager engaging in 'Social Graph,' a new type of illegal online gambling. Addiction to illegal internet gambling among teenagers often leads to crimes such as theft and fraud. However, related government agencies and educational authorities are criticized for practically doing nothing, failing to recognize the seriousness of the situation. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo

The age distribution of suspects showed that teenagers (under 19) were the largest group with 1,035 individuals (35.4%), followed by those in their 20s with 673, 30s with 551, 40s with 396, 50s with 188, and 60 and older with 82. Regarding occupation, students accounted for 1,035 suspects (35.4%), followed by unemployed at 20.9%, office workers at 18.8%, and professionals at 12.0%.

Among the 1,035 teenagers arrested in this special crackdown, 1,012 (97.8%) were users involved in gambling activities, while 23 (2.2%) were involved in producing, operating, or advertising gambling sites. Notably, the operation also uncovered cases where over 1,000 financial accounts under teenagers’ names were used to manage gambling funds.

Nearly half of the teenagers arrested this time were introduced to gambling sites through “friend referrals” (498 individuals, 48.1%). Other inducement routes included online gambling advertisements (35.9%), financial greed (12.1%), and curiosity (3.9%).

The most common types of gambling were baccarat (41.9%), followed by sports betting (19.8%), online casinos (17.1%), Powerball and slot machines (14.7%), and casual games (6.5%).

The police plan to conduct another special crackdown for six months starting next month, focusing on arresting individuals involved in △gambling program development △server management △gambling advertising △providing proxy items △high-stakes and habitual gambling activities.

Woo Jong-su, head of the National Investigation Headquarters, stated, “Through close international cooperation with Interpol, Europol, overseas investigative agencies, and information and communication companies, we are relentlessly tracking and arresting gambling offenders located abroad.” He added, “Law enforcement crackdowns alone have limitations in completely blocking teenagers’ access to gambling sites, so the attention of families, schools, internet service providers, and local communities is more important than anything else.”