▲ Arrest of Gang Members
A large criminal organization that built and supplied illegal gambling websites involving a record-breaking 23 trillion won in stakes—the largest scale in South Korea—has been rounded up by police.
The Chungnam Provincial Police Agency announced today (October 19) that it has apprehended 77 individuals, including organization members, on charges such as opening illegal gambling spaces, and has detained 21 of them.
They are accused of creating and supplying 188 illegal gambling websites and selling game money in South Korea, Vietnam, and Cambodia from March 2023 to July of this year.
Police investigations revealed that the suspects secured casino video streams and game money from legitimate overseas gaming companies, and then handed them over to illegal gambling website developers to mass-produce the sites.
Notably, the development firm recruited developers from major South Korean conglomerates to directly create a gambling website production program, which allowed them to build a single website in just 10 minutes, according to the findings.
Police estimate that the total stakes handled through these gambling sites reached approximately 23 trillion won, an all-time high, with the criminal proceeds amassed by the casino video supply organization and the development firm totaling 150 billion won.
Police investigation results showed that they frequently relocated their offices between Southeast Asia and South Korea while using overseas servers and messengers to evade tracking.
Police applied charges of forming and joining a criminal organization to 24 members of the development firm, shut down the operations of all 188 gambling sites they created and supplied, and blocked access to 408 related internet addresses.
In addition, police have completed pre-indictment asset preservation for 9.6 billion won in criminal proceeds and have requested Interpol Red Notices for 12 suspects who fled overseas to pursue their forced repatriation.
(Photo provided by Chungnam Provincial Police Agency, Yonhap News)
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