A year-long online lottery operation by the Korea National Reconnaissance Headquarters (NOI) has finally yielded results in the near future. Between November 2024 and October 2025, 5196 persons were arrested, 314 of whom were detained, and 123.5 billion won (approximately $89 million) of illegal gambling funds were recovered. The campaign highlighted the trend towards the growing size and specialization of online gambling groups.
The age distribution of persons arrested is marked by the fact that the 20-39 age group accounts for more than half of the total number involved. Specific data show that 1514 persons (25.3 per cent) were arrested in their twenties and 1,489 (24.9 per cent) in their thirties, which together account for 50.2 per cent. Investigators noted that the phenomenon reflected both the digital skills of young groups and the convenience of gambling operators to reach the target population through social media and mobile platforms. The remaining age distribution is 22.8 per cent for those over 40, 13.4 per cent for those over 50, 7 per cent for adolescents and 1.7 per cent for those over 60. The survey also found significant differences in the preferred forms of gambling among age groups; sports fairs are most popular among the 20-30-year-olds, who are more familiar with the mobile-end investment interface; online games and casinos are more evenly distributed among the 20-49-year-olds; and traditional forms of gambling, such as horse racing, bicycle racing and motorboats, focus primarily on those over 40 years of age, reflecting pre-digital consumption habits.
Despite the fact that 7 per cent of adolescents are in official statistics, the actual extent of the police emphasis on the participation of minors in gambling is much greater. During the past year, the Korean Public Prosecutor ‘ s Office has found a total of 7153 cases of underage gambling. As most cases were not formally charged, these data were not included in the law enforcement statistics. Depending on the seriousness of the act, the minor concerned is either transferred to the Police Steering Committee or warned and tried summarily. Officials warned that the rapidly rising trend of young people ‘ s involvement in gambling highlighted the urgency of strengthening preventive measures and parental supervision, especially at a time when online gambling was within reach. The national campaign also focused on combating the operation of illegal gambling platforms abroad. These teams usually operate through servers outside South-East Asia and use complex payment channels to circumvent surveillance. This year, the Korean authorities have arrested 97 suspects suspected of operating a gambling network worth 53 billion won (approximately $381 million), whose activities are trajectories involving operational strongholds in China, Cambodia, the Philippines and Viet Nam, as well as a 23-member gang operating a server gambling website in the Philippines.
Investigators described these networks as highly organized, transnational and difficult to track, requiring multi-country police cooperation. In view of the scale and complexity of the problem, the Korea Police Service announced an extension to October 2026 for a dedicated online gambling operation, with plans to target and arrest high-level operators of illegal gambling websites abroad. Mr. Park Woo-hyun, Network Investigator, Korea Police Office, stressed that the impact of illegal gambling had spread to young groups, that its evolution into organized cross-border crime required a more robust response and that the police would continue to focus on dismantling those criminal networks and preventing further harm.