Gyeonggi Bukbu Provincial Police Agency had uncovered a cybercrime ring accused of operating an illegal gambling website. Apart from this, it also attracts minors into gambling.
The police have arrested 35 suspects. It includes the ringleader in his 40s. Authorities suspect that illegal gambling websites have been operating for five years. It started in December 2018 to March 2023. Out of the 35 suspects, authorities have arrested 10.
The police officials said that the criminal ring operated gambling websites out of Dubai and Bali. International cooperation in these countries are poor and money laundering is easy to do. The criminal ring had an organization too based in South Korea. This is not just used to run advertisements but also to manage and recruit members and manage its finances and overall operations.
The suspects confessed during police investigations that they earned a large amount of their profits by illegally broadcasting sports events. Apart from this, collecting money from those betting on the outcomes of the matches.
They allegedly lured in primarily middle school teenagers who had run out of money while gambling, using them to attract peers to their gambling websites. They promised a portion of the money deposited into the crime ring by the users they recruited to these teenagers.
The teenagers have been advertising chatrooms on Telegram. Telegram is an encrypted messaging app.
During police investigations, authorities discovered that three underage participants attracted up to 500 users from August 2023 to October 2023, each earning up to 2 million won in profit.
12 minors were confirmed by police officials. This is among 25 suspects who were not yet arrested. It includes four middle schoolers and eight high schoolers.
Police found that the suspects operated a total of five gambling websites as of March. One of these is based in Korea, while four are based overseas.
