[사회]Elementary school student gambles 5 million won… lack of preventive education

Videos containing gambling methods and sites exposed without adult verification
Youth gambling, criminal charges if stake exceeds 5 million won
Other crimes such as school violence committed to raise gambling funds
A government-wide response team was formed, but there was no visible result.

[앵커]

As the online gambling problem among teenagers is becoming more serious, recently, even elementary school students have been caught gambling with stakes worth millions of won.

In most cases, people enter illegal gambling sites through SNS, etc., but school education for prevention is not properly implemented.

This is reporter Yeom Hye-won.

[기자]

If you type ‘baccarat’ into SNS, you will find many videos like this.

It explains how to gamble, and the address of an illegal online gambling site is also listed in the comments.

The problem is that there is no adult verification process, so children and teenagers can enter with just one click.

Because it is so accessible, most children these days fall into online casinos.

Just four years ago, the proportion of sports Toto or games was high, but illegal gambling at online casinos increased significantly during the period when schools were closed due to the coronavirus.

This year, counting through August alone, the number of cases detected in the past year is more than 1,500.

Because it is illegal gambling, teenagers are naturally punished if they are caught by the police.

If it is your first offense and the stake is less than 500,000 won, you will be sentenced to prison, but if the stake is more than 5 million won, you will be charged with criminal charges. The number of such youths has increased nearly five times compared to five years ago.

Even 45 boys aged 10 to 13 were caught this year alone.

Children who are addicted to illegal gambling also commit secondary and tertiary crimes, such as school violence, to raise money.

Last year, the government established a pan-government response team to youth gambling, but there were no visible results.

Unlike smoking and drugs, prevention education for gambling is not required at school sites.

[신미경 / 한국도박문제 예방치유원 원장 (지난 15일) : 가장 현안으로 보고 있는 게 예방교육이 어쨌든 학교장 재량으로는 하고 있지만 그것이 꼭 도박교육이 그 의무로 돼 있는 건 아니기 때문에 시수나 방법이 지금 정해져 있지 않습니다. 그렇기 때문에 교육부의 협조가 매우 절실한 상황입니다.]

The problem of youth gambling is growing like a snowball, with crimes such as lending gambling money at high interest rates becoming more prevalent.

It is more urgent to create a system that includes preventive education, crackdown, and rehabilitation treatment.

This is Hyewon Yeom of YTN.

Photographer: Hong Seong-no
Design: Lee Na-young

YTN Hyewon Yeom ([email protected])

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