A private horse racing gambling website ring accused of roping in members with the help of a YouTuber was rounded up by police. Investigators said they set up an office in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and ran the site by streaming races from the Korea Racing Authority as well as footage from Japan.
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Criminal Task Force said it referred 11 people who operated the gambling site on charges including violating the Korea Racing Authority Act, and two of them were sent to prosecutors under arrest. The Korea Racing Authority Act requires that horse races be held by the authority and bans private gambling that uses races conducted by the authority.
They are accused of operating a private horse racing site using the Korea Racing Authority's live race footage from Nov. 2022 to Nov. 2024, receiving about 1.4 billion won in gambling funds. They obtained the authority's live race videos from a Chinese company and ran an online gambling den. From Monday to Thursday, when there were no races, they had users bet on Japanese horse racing.
They also reportedly moved their office in Sep. 2023 from Ilsan, Gyeonggi Province, to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, to evade police crackdowns.
The ring recruited members through random text message ads and also enlisted a horse racing YouTuber with about 20,000 subscribers. The YouTuber, who was personally acquainted with the operators, was said to have introduced the gambling site to people around them. Police are also investigating this YouTuber. In Jun. last year, police received a tip that "a private horse racing gambling website using live race footage is being operated" and launched an investigation.
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency also arrested and referred to prosecutors an additional 18 members of a linked gambling-fund currency exchange ring through analysis of deposit accounts used for gambling funds. The ring handled top-ups and cash-outs for eight online gambling sites, with 17,795 users and gambling funds totaling about 170 billion won.
Police also referred 140 users of the exchange ring with large transaction amounts on gambling charges and obtained a pre-indictment preservation order to confiscate about 540 million won in criminal proceeds.