Illegal Online Gambling That Put Jin-ho Lee in Debt... Over 40,000 Reports Last Year

Illegal Gambling Reports Tripled Compared to 5 Years Ago
Increase in Surveillance Activities as Well
"Active Response Needed Through Manpower Reinforcement and Budget Increase"

On August 1st, at Hana Bank H-STAGE 1 in Mapo-gu, Seoul, a Youth Illegal Gambling Prevention Declaration Ceremony was held, where a participant took part in an event writing down their thoughts on youth illegal gambling. [Source=Yonhap News]

Comedian Lee Jin-ho has confessed to illegal online gambling, sparking controversy, and related reports have reportedly tripled.

According to data submitted by the Korea Racing Authority to Min Hyung-bae, a member of the National Assembly's Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea on the 16th, there were a total of 39,082 reports of illegal online gambling last year. This represents an approximately threefold increase compared to 13,064 reports in 2019.

Illegal gambling industry monitoring activities also increased from 16,662 cases to 48,648 cases during the same period, a 2.91-fold increase. In particular, last year, reports of illegal online gambling accounted for 80.3% of all monitoring activities. This year, up to August, 32,309 reports of illegal gambling industry activities were recorded, followed by illegal sports gambling (11,962 cases), illegal casinos (10,733 cases), and illegal online gambling (9,507 cases).

Additionally, the budget for monitoring illegal gambling industries was 1.052 billion KRW last year, a reduction of about 41.7% compared to 1.87 billion KRW in 2019, but this year's budget increased by 35.5% to 1.426 billion KRW. The number of monitoring personnel increased from 11 in 2019 to 12 in 2020?2021, and 13 in 2022?2023, but decreased to 12 this year.

Representative Min said, "The scale of illegal gambling has exceeded 100 trillion KRW, and illegal smartphone and online gambling is rapidly spreading not only among celebrities but also among teenagers," adding, "Relevant authorities must actively respond by increasing monitoring personnel and budgets."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.