Demographically, young adults dominate the arrests. Specifically, there were 1,514 individuals in their 20s (25.3 %) and 1,489 in their 30s (24.9 %), representing over half of total arrests.
But the crackdown didn’t just focus on youth — arrests also included 417 teenagers and 306 seniors aged 60 or above. The scope spanned a wide age range, showing how pervasive illegal gambling has become.
Alarmingly, police identified 7,153 juvenile gambling cases during the operation, underlining growing concerns over online gambling’s impact on minors.
Majority of offenses involved online casinos, followed by sports betting and racing bets (horse racing, motorboat, bike racing, etc.). Online casino players tended to be in their 20s–40s, while racing bets skewed older (40+).
Officials describe cyber-gambling as a highly addictive crime that’s evolving into organized and transnational crime. To tackle this, they plan to extend the crackdown through 2026 — targeting not only players, but the overseas operators behind the scenes.
Bottom line: This sweeping enforcement underscores how deep illegal online gambling is rooted in South Korea — involving thousands across age groups, generating massive illicit profits, and operating on a transnational scale.