South Korea Detains 361 Teens for Online Gambling in 2026

South Korean police detained 361 teenagers between the ages of 10 and 18 for participating in online gambling from January to July 2026, including 71 children under age 14, according to a report by Seoul Economic Daily citing data from the National Police Agency.

The publication attributed the declining age of gambling participants primarily to the increasing accessibility of online gambling through smartphones and social media platforms. As an example, the report cited an iGaming product called H Game, well known among Korean teenagers, which allows registration through referral codes shared via messaging apps, including Telegram. No further details regarding enforcement actions taken against the operators of these platforms were included in the report.

The figures point to growing concern among South Korean authorities over youth exposure to gambling through informal, referral-based access points that bypass traditional age verification methods used by licensed platforms. The reliance on messaging app referral codes for registration suggests these products specifically exploit peer-to-peer distribution networks common among younger users, a channel that may prove more difficult for regulators to monitor and block compared to conventional website-based gambling platforms.