A corporate-style criminal organization that operated a gambling network with a total stake of approximately 23 trillion won has been dismantled by police. The group was responsible for creating and supplying 188 illegal online casino sites and distributing game currency, with bases in Korea, Vietnam, and Cambodia.
It was revealed that they built a professional supply chain with clearly divided roles, ranging from supplying overseas casino game feeds to creating and franchising gambling sites, selling game currency, and recruiting gamblers, ultimately generating 150 billion won in criminal proceeds.
On the 20th, the Cyber Crime Investigation Unit of the Chungnam Provincial Police Agency announced that they had apprehended 77 individuals—including members of the illegal gambling site supply organization, operators, and gamblers—and detained 21 of them on charges of opening and operating gambling venues.
Among those apprehended were 25 top-tier suppliers, 33 lower-level site operators, and 19 gamblers. Of these, 18 from the supply organization and 3 from the operating organization have been formally arrested.
According to police, from March 2023 to July of this year, the suspects allegedly created and franchised 188 illegal gambling sites and distributed game currency across Korea, Vietnam, and Cambodia.
The organization was divided into 'vendors' who contracted with overseas casino game companies to secure game feeds and currency, and 'solution providers' who used these assets to build and franchise illegal gambling sites.
Vendors supplied the casino feeds to the solution providers, who then built the illegal sites and franchised them to lower-level operating groups.
The solution providers even recruited IT developers from major Korean corporations to develop their own proprietary gambling site creation software.
Investigations revealed that using this program, a single gambling site could be created in just 10 minutes.
After franchising the sites, the developers continued to profit by charging operators a monthly maintenance fee of 3 million won per site and selling them additional game currency.
The lower-level operating groups recruited gamblers by utilizing owners of adult PC cafes across the country. Some of these groups were found to have ties to organized crime syndicates.
Based on an analysis of financial accounts and game currency management data, the police determined that the cumulative amount staked on these sites reached approximately 23 trillion won.
This is the largest amount of stake ever recorded in a domestic illegal gambling site case.
The total criminal proceeds for the top-tier supply organization are estimated at 150 billion won, with approximately 120 billion won going to the vendors who supplied the casino feeds and 30 billion won to the site developers.
However, the 23 trillion won figure represents the cumulative betting amount cycled through the sites and does not reflect the actual profit of the criminal organization or the net losses of the gamblers.
To evade law enforcement, the group frequently moved offices between Korea and Southeast Asia, utilizing overseas servers, encrypted messengers, and borrowed-name accounts.
Police expanded their investigation to the upper-level supply chain after arresting a lower-level operating group last November.
During this process, they tracked 795 financial accounts and overseas messenger logs to uncover the full extent of the organization.
Notably, 24 individuals involved in the solution provider firm, who systematically divided tasks such as site creation, sales, and management, were charged with organizing, joining, and participating in a criminal syndicate.
The police have shut down all 188 gambling sites created and supplied by the organization and blocked access to 408 related web addresses.
Additionally, they have completed pre-indictment asset preservation for 9.6 billion won in criminal proceeds and notified the National Tax Service of the relevant data.
Interpol Red Notices have been issued for the 12 suspects who fled abroad, and the police are working toward their forced repatriation.
Kim Tae-woo, head of the Cyber Crime Investigation Unit at the Chungnam Police Agency, stated, "This investigation has dismantled the top-tier supply chain of illegal gambling sites, effectively causing the large-scale network to wither. We will continue to conduct persistent crackdowns focusing on these high-level supply organizations."
This case highlights how illegal online gambling has evolved into a corporate-style criminal industry, integrating casino content supply, IT development, game currency distribution, and user recruitment.
It underscores the importance of cutting off the supply chain and illicit profits, as new sites can easily emerge as long as the upper-level organizations supplying the games and currency remain active.
