On-site Inspections Triple, but Crackdown Results Fall Behind
Min Hyungbae: "Urgent Need for Measures to Strengthen Response to Illegal Gambling Industries"
Min Hyungbae, member of the Democratic Party of Korea.
Although the scope of surveillance for illegal gambling industries has greatly expanded due to the revision of the Tourism Promotion Act, concerns are mounting over its effectiveness as the rate of on-site crackdowns and the blocking rate of illegal online gambling sites have actually decreased.
According to an analysis of audit data submitted by the Gambling Industry Supervisory Commission to Min Hyungbae, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea (representing Gwangsan-eul, Gwangju), the number of on-site surveillance cases for illegal gambling industries over the past three years surged from 273 cases in 2022 to 909 cases in 2024, an increase of 3.3 times.
This change is attributed to the revision of the Tourism Promotion Act in February last year, which included activities such as hold'em pubs and similar casino businesses under the scope of surveillance. As of last year, the breakdown of illegal gambling types showed that illegal casinos accounted for 63.7%, illegal online gambling for 27.4%, and gambling arcades for 4.5%.
The problem is that, despite the expanded scope of surveillance, the actual crackdown performance has declined. The on-site illegal gambling crackdown rate plummeted from 17.9% in 2022 to just 4.7% as of August this year, dropping to a quarter of its previous level. This indicates that although the scope of surveillance has widened, it has not translated into actual enforcement.
The situation for illegal online gambling is similar. The number of online illegal gambling industry surveillance cases increased from 26,957 in 2022 to 50,439 in 2024, a 1.9-fold rise. In particular, illegal sports betting (42.8%) and illegal casinos (35.9%) are identified as the main types.
However, the blocking rate of illegal online gambling sites sharply declined from 73.2% in 2022 to 44.9% as of August this year. Of the 22,213 cases for which the Gambling Industry Supervisory Commission requested blocking reviews from the Korea Communications Commission, 7,925 cases are still under review, leading to criticism that a 'bottleneck' is occurring in the blocking process.
Regarding this situation, Min Hyungbae stated, "The scope of illegal gambling crackdowns has expanded, but the efficiency of surveillance and processing remains stagnant," and emphasized, "It is urgent to devise effective measures to strengthen the response capabilities against illegal gambling industries."
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