South Koreans are increasingly seeking help for problem gambling

South Korea may not have any forms of regulated online gambling, but there seems to be a prevalence of people seeking help for their gambling addiction precisely because there have been many rogue operators targeting teenagers and young people.

As a result, people in their 20s are now known to gamble online and develop a problem, according to a new report by The Korea Times, which cited Rep. Jun Hye-sook, a local lawmaker from the Democratic Party of Korea, who has raised the matter with fellow legislators.

Jun has said that the National Health Insurance Service supports the claim that there is a rise in the number of compulsive gamblers who need help. Just in the space of four years, their numbers have increased by 91.2%, the lawmaker said, from 1,218 in 2018 to 2,329 in 2022.

This trend has not been stemmed in 2023, it sees, although the data is not yet available. Younger people tended to be the most impacted in 2022, with those in their 30s seeking help in 866 instances and those in their 20s seeking help in 791 instances.

The data is important as it also demonstrated that people in their 20s are somewhat at the highest risk of becoming addicted to gambling, which resonates with consumer protection measures in jurisdictions such as the Netherlands.

In the Netherlands, authorities have prohibited operators to target, advertise to, or appeal to individuals who are under a certain age, citing their susceptibility to excessive gambling if exposed to promotional materials. Online gambling is prohibited in South Korea, but illegal websites have been actively targeting and singling out vulnerable customer groups with some degree of success.

Jun has suggested addressing the issue with the government getting more intimately involved with educating young people about the dangers of gambling. This would cost money, but it would well be worth it, Jun believes. Other jurisdictions not so far from South Korea, including Australia, have been meticulously responding to the threat of illegal online gambling, creating a list of brands that are prohibited in the country.

It has been a long and often slow process, but regulators in the Down Under have managed to dispose of hundreds of illegal brands and chase away some legitimate ones that were operating in a grey area and felt their licenses would be threatened elsewhere if they continued to do so.

Image credit: Unsplash.com