NHN Corporation Headquarters in Bundang, South Korea

It was confirmed on July 9 that the prosecutors recently investigated NHN's Hangame, the nation's largest online gaming site, on allegations of 'opening a gambling place'.

Back in January, the prosecutors withdrew the charges for accusing that 'gambling was prevalent in Hangame' without investigating the accuser. Many predict that the prosecutors changed their minds after five months and initiated full-scale investigation.

According to the prosecution, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office recalled the Trefoil Clover (Internet Gambling Prevention Committee) Chairman Lee Chang-Geun as a witness at the end of last month.

Chairman Lee Chang-Geun is the representative of a civil group who has accused NHN CEO Kim Sang-Hun, Hangame CEO Lee Eun-Sang, and GPlus CEO Kim Geun-Hoe of three charges - "opening a gambling site", "aiding and abetting gambling", and "fraud" - to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office back on January 9.

According to Chairman Lee, Hangame attempted to rip players off through the fraud program, where players practically loses their cyber money purchased with their real money, while operating web board games "Go-stop" and "Poker" for the last 12 years, which falls under "fraud" allegation. Also, Lee claimed that Hangame operated a stone checkers gaming site, encouraging users to bet their cyber money (that can be monetized) on England's Premier League results, which falls under "opening a gambling site" or/and "aiding and abetting gambling" allegation.

In spite of the scale of the case, the prosecutors didn't investigate the charges against Hangame on January 30 and didn't investigate the accuser, neither. At that time, the reason for the prosecutors ignoring the case was because the allegations were "too extensive".

Besides, the news of CEO Kim Sang-Hun and CEO Lee Eun-Sang being accused was only broadcasted on KBS, and no other information concerning the prosecutors' investigation process was never revealed back then. It's very unusual that the reports were ignored by the media when NHN's Naver is known as "dinosaur portal" and victims occurred continuously in Hangame.

However, the prosecutors recently recalled the chairman. After going through investigations, chairman Lee said, "I was surprised when the prosecutors contacted me suddenly after a few months. I submitted documents that show Hangame is being operated as a gambling site and I explained them fully."

Many expect that decrease in sales and poor reliability could result to NHN if the prosecution starts to probe its online gambling activities at Hangame, where it is claimed that it ripped players off with cyber money.

Captured image of NHN's online gaming site, Hangame