USFK Seeks Crackdown on Gambling by Koreans
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
The U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) plans to take stricter measures to prevent illegal gambling and loan profiteering off slot machines at U.S. military bases by South Koreans, a U.S. military newspaper said Thursday.
USFK authorities have ordered 100 percent identification card checks at all gambling facilities, and base access rosters showing guest and sponsor names are under review, according to Stars and Stripes.
USFK Commander Gen. B. B. Bell will release new gambling regulations no later than March 24, the report said. The USFK keeps some 27,000 soldiers here as a deterrent against North Korea.
Gambling is a strictly prohibited to South Koreans whether on or off the U.S. military bases here. South Koreans' gambling on base is illegal under the U.S.-South Korea Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA).
Citing its recent investigation into the slot machine program of the U.S. military, the newspaper said the U.S. Army and Air Force generated more than $83.6 million in revenue via 1,191 slot machines in South Korea in fiscal 2007.
The U.S. Army in South Korea earned about $73.5 million with 927 machines, it said, adding that the U.S. Army's 1,550 machines in Europe brought in $38.5 million during the same period.
The paper said an underground business involving escort fees and high-interest loans in gambling rooms on the American bases is still rampant.
Many South Koreans often borrow money from their escorts including military family members with base access, the report said quoting unidentified sources. That money, in turn, has put millions of dollars into military budgets that pay for entertainment and family activities on bases, it said.
For that reason, the U.S. military, in some sense, has ignored these decades-long bad practices, it said.
The paper introduced an exemplary case involving a South Korean woman.
Three years ago, the South Korean woman, identified only as Kim, was charged with running an illegal currency exchange business after local officials found she had charged entrance fees in exchange for signing in almost 180 Koreans onto base.
She was accused of charging 30,000 won (at the time, about $30) for access an estimated 900 times between 2002 and 2005. The Seoul police suspected she got more than $1 million from the illegal business.
The police said the woman got access to the base through a cultural friends group, the report said.