A group that operated a gambling site worth around 5 trillion won based in the Philippines has been arrested.

The Mobile Investigation Unit of the Gangwon Provincial Police Agency announced on the 6th that it arrested 14 people, including ringleader A, on charges including organizing a criminal group and opening gambling venues, and detained seven of them.

From September last year to this March, they are suspected of connecting casino video from well-known overseas game companies to the gambling sites they built and distributing them, along with game money, to top-level operators, thereby opening and running gambling spaces worth about 5.3 trillion won over roughly seven months.

According to the police investigation, ringleader A, who had been imprisoned in 2020 on suspicion of opening gambling venues, planned the crime while in custody, and after release recruited developers for gambling-site programs and set up an office disguised as a server rental company for site production and distribution.

It was found that from November 2021 to this March they produced 266 gambling sites, allotted them to lower-level operators for a monthly management fee of 3 million won, and sold the casino game currency called ‘Al’.

To maximize criminal proceeds, A’s group established a base in the Philippines in September last year and created a ‘vendor company’ site to continue the scheme.

A vendor company is a business that supplies and manages casino video purchased from game companies and the game currency ‘Al’ for lower-level operators.

By analyzing 205 crime-related accounts and Telegram conversations, police determined that the betting volume on the ‘vendor company’ site they created reached 5.3 trillion won, and arrested the ringleader and other members.

For two members who fled overseas, police obtained arrest warrants and requested Red Notices through the International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO·Interpol).

Police also seized as evidence a total of 480 million won in criminal proceeds from five senior members, including 278.4 million won in cash that co-ringleader B, who is on the run, had hidden in an unmanned locker.

They took pre-indictment seizure and preservation measures on 3,346,500,000 won in criminal proceeds.

Police said that while there have been cases of catching groups that operated gambling halls or developers of gambling sites, this is the first time they have identified the hard-to-trace vendor company that links them and arrested the members.

An official at the Gangwon Provincial Police Agency said, “The group caught this time was found to have carefully prepared the crime by using overseas remote servers to evade investigative tracking and by banning the use of mobile phones,” adding, “We plan to continue enforcement against gambling crimes that destroy people’s lives by deploying specialized investigative personnel.”