Unlawful sports gambling among minors surges, social alertness is urgently needed
Jan 21, 2025
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Sports gambling, such as the release of similar sites that mimic Sports Toto's unique games, such as Toto and Proto, is all considered illegal. In addition, regardless of legal or illegal, minors under the age of 19 cannot use them all in any case.
Under the current National Sports Promotion Act, minors are subject to up to three years in prison or a fine of up to 30 million won if they violate the purchase restriction that they should not sell sports promotion voting rights or pay refunds.
In addition, minors should pay special attention to this point because it stipulates that not only illegal sports gambling operators but also those who participate will be sentenced to up to five years in prison or fined up to 50 million won.
The results of the 'Special Crackdown on Cyber Gambling' conducted by the National Investigation Headquarters of the National Police Agency from September 2023 to March 2024 clearly revealed the seriousness of the current situation. A total of 2,925 people were arrested during the crackdown, of which 1035 (35.4%) were found to be minors under the age of 19.
The youngest gambling actor was a 9-year-old elementary school student, and the case of a teenage minor who directly participated in the operation as the head of an illegal gambling site was also confirmed.
According to media reports, the number of teenage minors who received 'Gambling Addiction Healing Services' from January to July last year also surged. Damage cases have been reported in various types of illegal sports gambling, including illegal online casinos (1319 people), private Sports Toto (211 people), and illegal real-time games (140 people). The figures clearly show that minors are increasingly exposed to illegal sports gambling.
Illegal sports gambling sites with servers overseas are luring minors through false advertisements saying 'state-permitted sports betting'. They use expressions similar to official terms or use phrases that are different from the real ones, causing confusion among minors.
In this regard, a Sports Toto Korea official said "The number of minors experiencing illegal sports gambling online continues to increaseAttention was paid to this, and Sports Toto Korea will do its best to root out the indiscriminate use of illegal sports gambling by minors.
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This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
