Major bust
South Korea’s Busan Metropolitan Police Agency (BMPA) has busted an executive-style gambling ring that handled bets worth KRW2.1 trillion ($1.4bn).
The BMPA’s Criminal Investigation Unit announced on Thursday that its arrests of 23 people included the ringleader it named only as “Mr. A”.
former national team medal winner
The mastermind was one of the seven arrested, including a former national team medal winner and two organized crime members, that the BMPA have kept in custody.
Authorities have accused the Asian Games medalist, who the BMPA said acted as a “betting technician,” Mr. A, and others of operating illegal “yangbang betting” offices in Busan from April 2022 to September 2025 via an illegal online platform.
Covering its tracks
According to The Chosun Daily, illegal Korea-facing gambling sites typically suspend yangbang bettors’ accounts and refuse withdrawals.
Yangbang gambling is structured to make profits “even if money is bet equally on both sides.” The suspects, however, avoided censure from the illegal gambling sites by accessing them from different IP addresses, or placing bets via multiple accounts.
ring made illegal profits worth around $2.4m
Police said that the illegal gambling sites sometimes asked Mr. A’s group to place bets while paying them commissions to up the stakes. The BMPA said this was how they discovered the ring made illegal profits worth around KRW3.6bn ($2.4m).
To cover its tracks, the crime ring rented eight office-hotels in Busan on short-term leases, and would move these operational bases every few months to avoid police detection.
Mr. A allegedly ran the operation by giving managers and employees gambling funds to sign up on the illegal sites, plus office rental fees and prepaid SIM cards registered under other names.
Red Notice issued
BMPA said the arrests came after it followed up on a tip about the existence of “a large-scale illegal gambling office involving organized crime” and that it raided multiple offices to arrest the group.
Courts, meanwhile, have also granted a request for a pre-indictment seizure and preservation order for around KRW270m ($183,784) against Mr. A.
Chosun cited a BMPA spokesperson who stated that the police agency has also “requested an Interpol Red Notice for another ringleader who fled to the Philippines” and other operators of the crime ring’s gambling site.
