Popular South Korean TV personality and comedian Lee Soo-geun is fairly the gambler, it seems. (Image source: asianwiki)
We tend, rightly, to think of North Korea since the area where absolutely nothing is permitted and no one can have any fun. But as it happens that in their way more seemingly Westernized cousin to the south, the law has an iron fist also.
Southern Korea makes gambling illegal salvage for a couple of state-run and strictly limited opportunities. And yet, lately, a handful of well-known South Korean celebrities have risked it all for the sake of a gambling that is quick, and possess been caught red-handed by the authorities there.
Celebs Get Caught Up
Among those caught up in the gambling allegations are really a well-known TV host/comedian, two A-list variety show hosts, and a former singer of this culturally popular K-pop variety. They truly are now all under research for illegal sports gambling.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office has announced that popular tv 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 football matches with a gambling website that is private.
Following news of the comedian’s alleged bad behavior, Lee Soo-geun announced his motives to leave all programs he is currently appearing on in order 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 present year.
Kim Yong-man has now started making tv appearances when again, therefore obviously he has finished reflecting on his conduct after being provided 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, perhaps not a victory) on foreign gambling sites.
Tak Jae-hoon, a television entertainer and show host who reached fame as half associated with the two-man band Country Kko Kko, has also been called in for enquiry, according to the local media, again for suspicion of illegal recreations gambling. The other half of this band, Shin Jung-hwan, has also faced allegations of illegal gambling.
Under Investigation
In total, reports indicate that between six and eight popular South Korean television characters are increasingly being investigated in link with unlawful sports wagering. Most notable among them all for the general public would likely be Tony An, a former singer of the now parted hit boy band H.O.T., who was summoned final month for his alleged role within the wagering process that is illegal.
Operated underneath the direction of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Sports Toto could be the only legal sports betting web site in Korea, while the upper gaming limit is set to 100,000 won per match, whereas the illegal sites in the country have no such gambling limits and they are obviously not regulated by any authority that is governmental.
But celebrities aren’t the only ones who have to be careful, as Yoon Ae-sook, a counsellor during the Seoul Gambling Addiction Prevention and Treatment Centre, explains that on line gambling addiction has become more prevalent for the reason that country. Based on the center, around 2.6 million Koreans have a gambling problem, which means a relatively high 7.6 percent of the adult population. That is significantly more than twice the price in the basic global population.
‘ As people can easily access the sites, the number of individuals that are exposed in their mind is increasing. Some lose billions of won regarding the internet sites,’ explained Yoon Ae-sook. ‘No one is resistant from gambling. In cases where a individual earns cash gambling, they spend more money to win more, while once they lose, they make an effort to recover their losses.’
But according to broadcasting insiders, celebrities in Korea are lured into gambling as a result of the lifestyles which don’t afford them the typical pastimes of the general public.
‘Entertainers can not take in a lot of because of their tight schedules, and because they’re famous they can not just kick back anywhere and relax,’ claimed Ahn Sang-hwi, a producer at tvN. ‘ They can’t even date for fear to getting their pictures all around the gossip pages, so their only socket is gambling.’
New On Line Poker Web Site Pays U.S. Players a Quarter to Sit Down
A new online poker site called Quarter Poker claims to finance tournament players with $ .25 a time, but a few aspects raise concerns.
A new, revolutionary and reportedly totally appropriate for U.S. players poker site aims to bridge the gap huuuge slots login involving the play-money gambler and the real-money one, and they are achieving this by actually providing you bankroll, free of charge.
Providing You With Bankroll
Before you get too excited, that bankroll is merely a quarter. But given that, in line with the website, you may get a brand new shiny one each day, and can cash out as soon as you hit $50, it at the very least gives the game a semblance of seriousness. In the event that you go bust, you need to wait 24 hours to get back doing his thing with another quarter.
The unusual website is called Quarter Poker, and because you’re not depositing money whenever you want, it claims to be legal in every U.S. state. Of course, because it’s never been done before that can match this, that stays to be seen.
But Who’s This Guy?
Decide to 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 had to patch together bits of PR and news to come up with even the title of the man in the pitch video clip: Alex Klinghoffer. At least, we thought it was equivalent man; the notably grainy bio picture on his individual website looks like it could be exactly the same guy, but their resume and bio bear no mention whatsoever of the QP site. We finally accompanied a link on his site that took us to their Facebook page which had one mention of QP going live, and some pictures with a gorgeous gf and some pretty well-heeled looking young men. It claims he’s in Kansas. Maybe he’s a trust fund child, but not mentioning your capital source for the brand new site, or any partners, or also yourself, is odd to state the smallest amount of.
That being said, Klinghoffer does star in his site’s promotional video, which is about as slick as the typical made-at-home ones many online marketers post.
All we could say is, we’ve covered site that is enough online to state that, if not actually fishy, in this way of launching isn’t the norm. It begs the relevant question: what’s not being said here? On the other hand, we do see Klinghoffer questions that are answering on various poker forums, so who knows, perhaps he just sucks at self-promotion.
QP claims they won’t make money on the website until they’ve enough players to attract advertisers; they also hint at a future membership fee, but for now, it’s free.
Performance Problems
That’s the good news. Now here’s the news that is not-so-good. In your website’s FAQs, they built the web site themselves, and according to some associated with the early player Facebook comments, it shows. Looks like they quietly launched on Sept. 29, and as of October 10 (12 days later), they noted these people were nevertheless waiting for a player to actually cash down the $50. We grant you, with small tournament tables and the opportunity to win about $1.25 for first, that could take awhile, and you would have to be running such as an Ethiopian marathoner to make it here before 2015. But that’s the least of these dilemmas therefore far.
A sampling of Facebook comments on their page and there are not many had been mostly frustrated with disconnection issues and unpopulated tables ( the site does say in their FAQs until they pull in enough players to stop using them) that they are using bots the equivalent of shills at a land table.
And although they say you’ll cash out at $50, for now anyway, you will only be receiving a 2:1 ratio, i.e., $25 in your actual cashout. Again, they blame this for a tiny initial start-up base and say that will change as time passes and with the addition of membership fees. You are able to, theoretically anyway, partake in 6, 10, and 20-player Sit and Go tournaments; no money games are mentioned at the moment, though apparently the web site’s operators will consider that, also as MTTs, down the road. The software is said to operate in internet explorer (we did view a few responses blasting the performance of exact same on the QP Facebook page), so no downloads are needed.
Now let’s get towards the real elephant in the room: the angle that is legal. Klinghoffer is reportedly quoted as saying that ‘we had the model authorized by one regarding the gaming that is top in the nation. And even though the explanation is in fact types of complicated, it boils down to the undeniable fact that this is not gambling.’
Didn’t somebody mention their ’solid’ legal counsel after handing over millions to the Department of Justice to prevent a prison term that is lengthy? Hmmm.
Which then begs the relevant concern why you must be 18 to play on your website. Zynga, for instance, just requires that you be 13, and that’s presumably more so some hysterical moms and dad doesn’t come after them than as a result of any gambling technicalities they might get nailed for.