The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office announced Friday that it is investigating over a dozen Korean baseball players in connection with illegal online gambling. According to the Korea Times, officials suspect 12-14 current players, as well as one-time player and television personality Kang Byung-kyu.
The Koran Times reported that the current players are members of two local teams and that some of those suspected by prosecutors are national stars. Authorities allege that the players gambled more than W1 billion ($677,048) playing online baccarat on illegal sites run by Korean nationals abroad. The Won (W) is South Korea’s national currency.
Officials say the sites in question are not the same as those they suspect Kang of using. Kang – a retired baseball player and host of the country’s popular “Vitamine” TV show – is one of 130 Korean nationals summonsed because of their connection with an illegal baccarat ring in the Philippines.
Prosecutors say Kang sent nearly $1.2 million to the ring, whose four operators earned approximately $100 million over an 18-month period.
Both accusations are the result of the National Police Agency’s crackdown on illegal Internet gambling in September and October, in which it rounded up over 1,681 people. Police say that 113 of those arrested operated the 729 gambling sites they shut down and that the other 1,568 were either gamblers or operated online currency exchanges.
(For more information on the arrests, please see our Sep. 30 story, “Koreans Bust Gambling Ring”).
Prosecutors plan to question the 12-14 unnamed players, saying, “We found that one player who had won a large sum stopped gambling after receiving a message from the site operator saying, ‘We believe you have cheated. If you continue gambling on our site, we will let your team manager know that you gambled here.’”
The Korea Times indicated that KBS, the network that airs “Vitamine,” is seeking to replace Kang with another host.
phill.provance@gamblingplanet.org
