0
/ This image was generated by AI.

The number of teenagers arrested for cyber gambling between January and July this year has already surpassed the total number of arrests for all of last year. Despite gambling prevention programs conducted in schools, adolescents continue to engage in gambling, prompting calls to reexamine the curriculum and effectiveness of such education.

According to data obtained from the National Police Agency on the 27th by Rep. Kim Joon-hyuk of the main opposition Democratic Party, who sits on the National Assembly's Education Committee, 267 teenage suspects were booked for cyber gambling from January to July this year. The figure for the first seven months of this year has outstripped the 266 total arrests recorded throughout all of last year.

Teen cyber gambling arrests fell from 116 in 2021 to 87 in 2022, before surging to 170 in 2023 and 749 in 2024. While the tally dropped to 266 last year, this year's count exceeded the entire annual total of the previous year in just seven months. By region, southern Gyeonggi Province logged the highest number at 50, followed by Busan with 36, Seoul with 33, and North Chungcheong Province with 20. Northern Gyeonggi Province and South Chungcheong Province recorded 18 each.

Online casino games and casual mini-games accounted for large shares of the gambling activities experienced by youth. According to the 2025 Youth Gambling Survey released by the Korea Center on Gambling Problems, 35.8% of adolescents who gambled continuously over the past six months cited online casino games as their most frequent form of gambling. This was followed by online mini-games at 29.8%, online hwatu card games at 17.2%, sports betting at 16.0%, and online lotteries at 10.2%.

While schools continue to carry out gambling prevention education, the rise in teenage arrests has led critics to question the practical efficacy and content of these programs. In 2024, every school across seven special cities and provinces—including Busan, Daejeon, Sejong, Gangwon, South Chungcheong, South Jeolla, and North Gyeongsang—conducted prevention classes. In Busan, all 617 local schools held prevention sessions during the first semester of last year as well, yet the city recorded 36 teenage cyber gambling arrests through July this year, the second highest in the nation.

Rep. Kim emphasized that education must specifically instruct students that they can be implicated in crimes not only through direct gambling, but also by lending bank accounts or promoting illicit sites. Kim noted, "Education authorities should not stop at simply checking off whether prevention education was delivered, but must establish a framework that takes full responsibility for evaluating its practical effectiveness."

                                                                                                              Lee Ha-eun