South Korean Cops Bust Illegal Gambling
Published: Saturday, October 21, 2006 Online-Casinos.com
MORE KOREAN KAPERS AS COPS BUST ILLEGAL GAMBLING
Police had a smashing time on these raids!
South Korean police smashing an illegal computer gambling ring, did it literally by destroying hard disc drives with hammers, reports Reuters.
It took more than a dozen men and an excavator to destroy 670 computers seized from illegal Internet gambling salons in the southern city of Ulsan, the news service reports.
And this was just a part of valuable equipment confiscated recently by the authorities: "There are more computers like that in our office waiting for disposal," said Byeon Dong-ki, an officer at the Ulsan Police Agency.
South Korea's myriad Internet cafes used to be a choice youth hangout in this ultra-wired country. The cafes soon became the cradle of the nation's booming online gambling industry that now threatens to overwhelm video console games. Just a few years ago, the cafes known as PC baangs were full of teenage boys slaying virtual beasts in the virtual universe of multiplayer online games, standing next to grown-ups staring intently at Asian checker screens, contemplating their next move.
Now the industry faces a formidable competitor - adults-only video casino bars, which are thriving across the country, where gambling is mostly illegal.
Only one of the country's 17 legal casinos allows locals to gamble. Nevertheless, money-betting video games have mushroomed in recent years, first with virtual horse races and then video slot machines.
While no real cash is allowed to change hands, the government allowed gambling arcades a huge loophole by letting them give out "gift certificates," which could then be easily exchanged for cash after payment of a 10 percent commission. A boom soon followed amid suspicions that some operators had begun to unlawfully reprogram games to allow higher payouts and win more gamers.
Other types of gambling cafes - so called adult PC baangs - offer online poker games on specially designed game networks. Some of them have private rooms where people can enjoy adult content on the Web in a confidential setting.
No official data is available but police estimate there are approximately 15 000 video casino bars and 4 000 adult PC baangs nationwide. Hit by competition, the number of non-gaming Internet cafes has fallen to 20 000 as of September from a peak of 25 000 in 2004, according to industry data. Some owners have "converted" to more lucrative adult PC baangs.
The South Korean government says it will continue to hammer illegal gambling: "If we come across a game salon that operates with gambling, like at many 'Sea Story' places, we will have those Internet lines blocked," Culture Minister Kim Myung-gon said in a recent interview with Reuters and in an apparent reference to ISPs. The culture ministry also said that the value of gift certificates issued in South Korea over the past year totaled 30 trillion won ($31.5 billion).
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