Baseball Players Caught for Online Gambling
By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
Prosecutors are investigating more than 10 pro-baseball players suspected of having habitually bet tens of millions of won on illegal online gambling. Some top-class players are also on the list.
Prosecutors have confirmed that 12 to 14 baseball players played Baccarat on an Internet site.
The site was different from the one that baseball player-turned-show host Kang Byung-kyu used, a prosecutor said. Kang was earlier booked for gambling on an Internet site which broadcast Baccarat games live from a casino in the Philippines. He allegedly bet 2.6 billion won and lost about half of it.
The prosecution will summon the players soon for questioning. ``We examined whether other people borrowed the players' names for membership of the gambling site, but we secured evidence that the players themselves gambled,'' the prosecutor said.
According to the prosecution, some players stopped gambling after gaining money in the games as the site operator threatened them. ``The operator, suspecting that the players won the games through hacking, threatened that they would notify their teams of their gambling, so the players stopped using the site,'' he said.
The prosecution will examine their bank accounts to look into whether they played the illegal games on other sites.
This is the latest in a series of illegal gambling scandals involving sports players. Earlier in November, another baseball pitcher, Oh Sang-min of the LG Twins, was booked for holding more than 60 gambling sessions in Daegu. The money up for grabs reached three million won per session. He reportedly lost 70 million won and a car. The gambling house owner blackmailed Oh, which prompted him to turn himself in to police.