Classrooms Consumed by Gambling: Students Turn Loan Sharks and Threaten Parents

"Talk to your husband and get the money. Because of that precious son of yours, I am not getting paid..."

These are not lines from a loan shark in the popular Netflix drama 'True Education.'

They are from an actual recording provided to the media by the civic group 'School Without Gambling.'

The person behind this voice is a teenage student, identified as A.

Student A had lent small amounts of money at high interest rates to a classmate, student B, who was addicted to cyber gambling. When B failed to pay, A began making threatening phone calls to B's parents.

The ensuing conversation was more brutal than anything in a drama.

Student A: "Tell B to just kill himself."

Student B's mother: "I will definitely... (pay it back) by this Friday."

Student A: "Friday? You b. I'm giving you until today. Hello? Are you not answering?"

The case of student A, who transformed into an illegal loan shark, shows that youth gambling has gone beyond individual deviance.

Classrooms have effectively become lower-level organizations within a sophisticated criminal ecosystem.

For illegal gambling site operators, teenagers are the easiest targets.

Due to the nature of peer culture, once one student becomes addicted, gambling spreads like a virus throughout the entire class and, eventually, the whole school.

In this process, students who act as 'distributors' (sales agents) for the sites emerge.

They recruit fellow students and, in return, earn up to millions of won in commissions in a single day.

The reality of in-school gambling addiction depicted in the drama 'True Education' is real.

Cho Ho-yeon, head of 'School Without Gambling,' said in an interview, "Students who are actually struggling academically or are considered 'troublemakers' don't really gamble," adding, "So-called 'iljin' (school bullies) act as distributors to create an environment for gambling, and innocent students get hooked."

He continued, "Some distributors are already making huge sums of money while in high school," and noted, "That is how becoming a 'To-sajang' (slang for illegal sports betting site operator) becomes their dream."

This is the secret to how the illegal gambling site ecosystem has been maintained for decades.

In reality, the students who fall into gambling have no choice but to lose money due to the sites' rigged systems.

Even so, when some students occasionally win, it is framed as 'skill,' leading to them being idolized.

'High-interest loan sharks' like student A exploit this gap.

They lend small amounts of money to students who are anxious after losing, charging murderous interest rates that can exceed 50 percent per week.

Students who borrow the money fall into the illusion that they can "win and pay it back," but the result is obvious.

The debt quickly snowballs into tens of millions of won.

Students burdened with unmanageable debt are said to become slaves.

Not only do their parents receive threatening calls like in the case of student A, but some are also forcibly mobilized to promote gambling sites as a way to reduce their debt.

Falling into the swamp of secondary crimes—such as fraud in secondhand transactions, theft, and even prostitution-related scams to pay off debts—is the current state of classrooms in 2026.

Because youth gambling is underground, it is difficult to even calculate accurate statistics.

However, warning signs erupting everywhere show that the situation has already passed a critical point.

Recently, after the National Police Agency held a one-month period for voluntary reporting of youth cyber gambling, a single high school in the Gangwon region shocked the local community when 48 students confessed to gambling.

According to a survey conducted last year by the Korea Center on Gambling Problems, it is estimated that 157,703 teenagers have gambled at least once in their lives.

Compared to the 7,153 youth gamblers caught by the National Police Agency over the past year (November 2024 to October 2025), this is merely the tip of the iceberg.

A 17-year-old student, surnamed Kim, who recently quit gambling after starting in middle school, described the gambling-ridden atmosphere in his classroom during an interview.

He said, "About two-thirds of the boys in my class gambled," and "They talked about gambling openly at school, and when they made money, they would buy food for their friends."

He also confessed, "I borrowed money from friends and older acquaintances and ended up with a 6 million won debt," adding, "Some people around me would break into cars or sell their KakaoTalk accounts to pay off their debts."

Kim advised friends who still cannot quit gambling, "You need to get psychiatric treatment, and if you report yourself voluntarily, you can receive counseling and potentially face lighter punishment."

Experts also agree that it is realistically difficult for teenagers addicted to gambling to break the chains on their own.

They emphasize that social intervention to bring them into the light is urgent.

This is the context behind the government's decision to continue the voluntary reporting system until the end of August.

Recent cases include a 15-year-old boy who assaulted his mother and attempted to take his own life after she refused to pay his 4 million won gambling debt, and a 17-year-old out-of-school youth who ran away from home and committed car thefts due to 16 million won in gambling debt; both are now undergoing addiction treatment through voluntary reporting.

The police plan to immediately deploy School Police Officers (SPO) and professional gambling addiction counselors upon receiving a voluntary report to conduct screening tests and connect students to specialized addiction treatment institutions based on the results.

Furthermore, the police intend to prioritize healing over punishment, reviewing factors such as the gambling amount and the student's attitude, and will provide maximum leniency through police station-level diversion committees, such as through admonition or summary judgment.
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.