A screenshot of Hangame's New Yut-nori game. Users are playing games by betting their cyber money.

It has been found that Hangame, a popular Korean online game portal operated by NHN Entertainment (formerly, NHN Hangme), introduced a betting system that enables you to earn cyber money and fosters online gambling.

NHN Entertainment's money-blinded practices has sparked criticism as it turned one of Korean traditional games into a gambling game.

According to South Korean Game Rating Board on August 18, NHN Entertainment changed the title of its E rated Yut-nori game into "Shin Yut-nori" (New Yut-nori) in March 2008 and has been operating it as AO (Adults Only) rated.

A screenshot of rating evaluation result for Hangame's "Shin Yut-nori" on Game Rating Board website.

An official from the Game Rating Board said, "Although Yut-nori itself is not a gambling game, the game was rated AO (Adults Only) because it allows users to purchase game money for either betting or distributing. We instructed the company to display information on the game saying that it is a gambling game."

Another game publisher Netmarble, operated by CJ E&M, provides two types of Yut-nori game. The first type is for young people, ages 15 and up and it provides game money for free. Another one is with the AO mark, which is not for anyone under the age of 18 and allows users to purchase game money.

Regarding the rating for 'Shin Yut-nori', an official from NHN Entertainment declined to answer, "We cannot answer your question." It seems like NHN Entertainment is being conscious of gambling controversy of its various web-based board games.

Apart from Shin Yut-nori, NHN Entertainment received "Rated AO" for its billiard games and baduk games by introducing speculative betting system.

Currently, Hangame provides two types of billiard games, 'Billiard Mania' and '3 Cushion Billiard Mania'. Both games allow users play games by betting certain amount of their cyber money.

In addition, NHN Entertainment's 'Baduk', and 'Janggi' are 'AO rated' games because of their betting system.

NHN Entertainment has even introduced a special betting system for its 'Baduk' game, which allows other users to predict the game results as they watch the game.

Indeed, a civil group for Hangame gambling damage prevention accused NHN Entertainment back in January on allegation of 'opening a gambling place' after launching a speculative gambling event in which users bet their cyber money by predicting the winning team of English Premier League and Korea Professional Baseball's Korean Series.

Despite these concerns, NHN Entertainment revealed that it was considering to support betting rooms continuously for sports games.

In this regard, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism notified 'the revised bill of law on game industry promotion' back on the 1st, but it has been delayed due to opposition from game industry.