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Popular South Korean TV comedian and personality Lee Soo-geun is fairly the gambler, this indicates. (Image source: asianwiki)
We tend, rightly, to think about North Korea since the region where absolutely nothing is allowed and no one may have any fun. But as it happens that in their much more cousin that is seemingly westernized the south, the law comes with an iron fist as well.
Southern Korea makes gambling illegal save for a couple of state-run and strictly limited opportunities. Yet, recently, a small number of well-known South Korean celebrities have risked it all for the benefit of a gambling that is quick, and now have been caught red-handed by the authorities there.
Celebs Get Swept Up
Among those caught up in the gambling allegations really are a well-known TV host/comedian, two A-list variety show hosts, and a former singer associated with the culturally popular variety that is k-pop. They have been now all under research for illegal sports gambling.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office has established that popular television comedian Lee Soo-geun has been summoned for questioning, based on suspicions that he wagered a huge selection of millions of Korean won (1KRW is equal to approximately $0.93) on English Premier League soccer matches using a personal gambling web site.
Following news of the comedian’s alleged bad behavior, Lee Soo-geun announced their intentions to leave all programs he is currently appearing on in an effort to ‘take some time to reflect,’ according to broadcaster KBS, just like show host Kim Yong-man did whenever he was discovered to be illegally gambling in April earlier this year.
Kim Yong-man has now begun television that is making as soon as again, therefore obviously he’s finished reflecting on his conduct after being given an eight-month suspended prison term and 120 hours of community service. And he even bet over one billion Korean won (that’s the currency, maybe not a victory) on foreign gambling sites.
Tak Jae-hoon, a television entertainer and show host who reached fame as half for the two-man band Country Kko Kko, has additionally been called in for enquiry, in line with the local media, again for suspicion of illegal activities gambling. The partner for the band, Shin Jung-hwan, has also faced allegations of illegal gambling.
Under Investigation
In total, reports indicate that between six and eight popular South television that is korean are now being investigated in link with illegal sports wagering. Most notable among them all for the general public would probably be Tony An, a former singer of the now parted hit kid band H.O.T., who had been summoned final thirty days for his alleged role within the illegal wagering procedure.
Operated underneath the direction of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Sports Toto is the only appropriate sports betting web site in Korea, and also the top gaming limit is set to 100,000 won per match, whereas the illegal sites within the country have no such gambling limits and so are obviously not regulated by any authority that is governmental.
But celebrities aren’t the only ones who should be careful, as Yoon Ae-sook, a counsellor during the Seoul Gambling Addiction Prevention and Treatment Centre, explains that online gambling addiction is now more prevalent in that nation. Based on the center, around 2.6 million Koreans have a gambling issue, which means a relatively high 7.6 percent of the adult population. That’s a lot more than twice the price into the basic population that is global.
‘ As individuals can access the sites easily, the number of individuals who’re exposed for them is rising. Some lose billions of won in the internet sites,’ explained Yoon Ae-sook. ‘No one is immune from gambling. If a individual earns money gambling, they spend more money to win more, while when they lose, they make an effort to recover their losses.’
But according to broadcasting insiders, celebrities in Korea are lured into gambling because of the lifestyles which don’t afford them the typical pastimes of the public that is general.
‘Entertainers can’t drink a lot of because of their tight schedules, and simply because they’re famous they can’t just kick back once again anywhere and relax,’ stated Ahn Sang-hwi, a producer at tvN. ‘ They can’t even date for fear to getting their pictures throughout the gossip pages, so their only socket is gambling.’
Brand New Online Poker Web Site Pays U.S. Players a Quarter to Take A Seat
A online that is new site called Quarter Poker claims to finance tournament players with $ .25 a time, but a few aspects raise concerns.
A fresh, innovative and reportedly completely legal for U.S. players poker site aims to bridge the space between your play-money gambler and the real-money one, and they are achieving this by really providing you bankroll, for free.
Providing You With Bankroll
Before you get too excited, that bankroll is only a quarter. But given that, according to the website, you can get a new shiny one each and can cash out once you hit $50, it at least gives the game a semblance of seriousness day. You have to wait 24 hours to get back in action with another quarter if you go bust.
The website that is unusual called Quarter Poker, and because you aren’t depositing money whenever you want, it claims to be appropriate in every U.S. state. Of program, because it’s never been done before quite like this, that remains to be seen.
But Who’s This Guy?
Try that we are we could not find, in concrete anywhere, the names of the guys who came up with this idea, or where their funding is coming from either though we did erstwhile investigative reporters. We’d to patch together bits of PR and news to even come up with the title associated with the guy in the pitch movie: Alex Klinghoffer. No mention whatsoever of the QP site at least, we thought it was the same guy; the somewhat grainy bio picture on his personal website looks like it could be the same guy, but his resume and bio bear. We finally followed a link on his website that took us to his Facebook page which had one mention of QP going live, and some photos with a gorgeous girlfriend and some pretty well-heeled looking young men. It states he’s in Kansas. Maybe he’s a trust investment baby, yet not mentioning your capital source for a site that is new or any partners, or even yourself, is odd to say the smallest amount of.
That being said, Klinghoffer does star in his internet site’s promotional video, which is about as slick as the typical made-at-home ones many online marketers post.
All we are able to say is, we’ve covered site that is enough online to say that, or even actually fishy, this way of launching isn’t the norm. It begs the relevant question: what’s not being stated here? Having said that, we do see Klinghoffer answering questions directly on different poker forums, so who knows, maybe he just sucks at self-promotion.
QP claims they won’t make cash on the internet site they also hint at a future membership fee, but for now, it’s free until they have enough players to attract advertisers.
Performance Dilemmas
That is the good news. Now here’s the news that is not-so-good. In the site’s FAQs, they built the web site themselves, and based on some for the player that is early comments, it shows. Looks they noted they were still waiting for a player to actually cash out the $50 like they quietly launched on Sept. 29, and as of October 10 (12 days later. We grant you, with small tournament tables plus the possiblity to win about $1.25 for first, that may simply take awhile, and you’d have to be running like an marathoner that is ethiopian make it here before 2015. But that’s the least of these dilemmas so far.
A sampling of Facebook comments on their page and there aren’t many were mostly frustrated with disconnection issues and unpopulated tables ( the site does say in their FAQs that they’re making use of bots the same as shills at a land dining table until they pull in enough players to stop using them).
And although they say it is possible to cash out at $50, for now anyway, you will just be finding a 2:1 ratio, i.e., $25 in your actual cashout. Again, they blame this for a little initial start-up base and say which will change with time and with the addition of membership fees. You are able to, theoretically anyway, partake in 6, 10, and 20-player Sit and get tournaments; no money games are mentioned at present, though reportedly the web site’s operators will consider that, too as MTTs, down the line. The software is said to run in web browsers (we did visit a comments that are few the performance of exact same in the QP Facebook page), so no downloads are needed.
Now let’s get to the real elephant in huuuge casino ca the room: the legal angle. Klinghoffer is reportedly quoted as saying that ‘we had the model authorized by one regarding the top gaming attorneys in the country. Even though the good reason is type of complicated, it boils down to the fact that this isn’t gambling.’
Didn’t somebody mention their ‘solid’ a lawyer after handing over millions to the Department of Justice to avoid a prison term that is lengthy? Hmmm.
Which in turn begs the question why you have to be 18 to play on the website. Zynga, as an example, just calls for than due to any gambling technicalities they could get nailed for that you be 13, and that’s presumably more so some hysterical parent doesn’t come after them.
