| | |  | Last Updated: Tuesday, October 23, 2007 |  | | | Korean officials' involvement questioned concerning gambling slots
- Tuesday, 22 Aug 2006
Adult game rooms equipped with slot machines like "The Sea Story," "Mermaid Story" and "Golden Castle" have become in recent years a national craze, surpassing the 'old' gambling type games such as horse racing which is on a steady decline. The video slot machines entered the market in 2004 and have entirely changed the way Korea is gambling.
The gambling games are allowed in a designated room and allow a 20,000 won limit, but the legalized gambling operators are facing an investigation concerning a claim that most of them rig their machines to allow higher winnings.
The Korean gambling industry involving the electronic slot machines is an issue of controversy but lately it has turned into more of a national scandal as the investigation looks into the involvement of public officials and some of the president's confidants, namely Roh Ji-won, President Roh's nephew who worked as a managing director under the company distributing the game.
The prosecution is considering closing down gambling parlors that operate illegally reprogrammed video slot machines, which provide larger winnings than legally permitted and according to officials, some 60,000 game machines are active in Korea. The assumption is that the machine's memory systems were manipulated and allowed jackpot winnings of more that 3 million, way above the limit of 20,000 won.
The Justice Ministry has ordered a nationwide investigation looking into the evasion of several billion won of taxes and any links between 'The Sea Story' and the president's nephew. | |
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