Short track speed skaters charged with gambling
By Park Jin-hai
After a series of gambling scandals involving some of the biggest basketball and baseball players hit Korean sports last year, five short track speed skaters are charged with yet another scandal of illegal gambling.
They are alleged to have placed bets of up to 3 million won ($2,600) on an illegal sports gambling website, according to the Gyeonggi Bukbu provincial police agency.
The news came as a surprise, because one of the charged short trackers is a high school student and three of them finished in the top eight in the second round of the short track speed skating national team qualifications for the 2016-17 season that ended Sunday.
The police have now expanded the investigation as those charged confessed that there are up to 40 others involved in the case, including former and current national short track team coaches.
The Korea Skating Union (KSU) said on Thursday that it has decided to ban the three skaters from competitions and exclude them from national training. Further punishment could be given depending on the police investigation, the KSU said.
As for the repeated gambling cases plaguing Korean sports, observers say that the soft punishment has caused a moral hazard among the players.
“Without strong punishment, illegal gambling cannot be rooted out. It is already reaching to teenage players,” said an industry insider.
However, questions remain about the degree of punishment as the KSU said, “the punishment level should be decided, in reference to the similar cases and then ethics education and community service will be strengthened.”
In fact, most of the players involved in illegal gambling in the past had their indictments suspended or they were not prosecuted. Then come back to their sport after being shunned for a certain amount of time.
Athletes say their particular situation makes them prone to the illegal gambling. “As we frequently stay together in training camp and have close relationships as a team, if one starts gambling, it is easy for it to spread to others,” said a former soccer player who declined to be named.
Since the match-fixing scandal marred thye Korean soccer league in 2011, which left 58 players expelled for good and one goal keeper committing suicide, the local sports scene has been struggling with chronic gambling scandals. In September last year, 12 professional basketball players, 13 judokas and one wrestler were indicted without detention. In December last year, professional baseball players, including Yun Sung-hwan and Lim Chang-yong of the Samsung Lions, were indicted on overseas gambling charges.