A group that ran Korea's largest illegal cyber gambling operation based in the Philippines has been caught by police. More than 5 trillion won changed hands at this gambling operation over seven months.
The Gangwon Provincial Police Agency's criminal task force said on the 6th that it arrested 14 people, including the ringleader, identified only as A, on charges including forming a criminal organization and opening a gambling space, and detained seven of them.
According to police, A, the ringleader, was arrested in 2020 on charges including opening a gambling space and planned the crime while in custody. After being released, A recruited developers for gambling websites and, posing as a server rental company to build the sites, secured an office.
From Nov. 2021 to Mar. this year, they built 266 gambling sites and allocated them to subordinate operators. They collected 3 million won per month as a management fee and operated the sites by selling "Al," the casino game money.
To increase criminal revenue, A's group set up a "vendor company" in the Philippines in Sep. last year. It is a distribution site that can receive casino video and game money directly from game companies. In the structure of illegal cyber gambling operations, the vendor company sits at the top.
In this way, from Sep. last year to Mar. this year, the amount bet at the illegal cyber gambling sites created by A's group was 5.3 trillion won. Police said it was the largest scale in Korea. Considering that the crime began in Nov. 2021, the actual scale is likely larger.
Police said that while there have been cases where groups operating gambling sites or developers of such sites were caught, this is the first time a vendor company has been apprehended.
Police analyzed 205 criminal accounts and Telegram chat logs to identify the betting volume and arrested members of the organization, including the ringleader. Two members who fled overseas were issued arrest warrants and placed on Interpol red notices.
Police seized a total of 480 million won in criminal proceeds from five senior-level members, including 278.4 million won in cash that B, a co-ringleader who fled, had hidden in an unattended storage locker. A total of 3.3465 billion won in criminal proceeds was preserved and collected before indictment.