TLDR
- Police caught 71 children aged 10 to 13 for gambling crimes in the first seven months of 2026, matching the totals seen for all of 2024 and 2025 combined.
- Children under 14 cannot be charged criminally in South Korea, but they still made up nearly one in five youth gambling arrests this year.
- Only 6 of South Korea’s 15 regional gambling treatment centers offer services built for young people.
- The national gambling treatment agency’s 2026 budget is about $16.3 million, yet just 0.5% of that goes to training specialists.
- Officials are pushing for a permanent system linking schools, police and treatment centers to catch problem gambling earlier.
Police in South Korea caught 361 people aged 10 to 18 for gambling crimes between January and July of this year. Of that group, 71 were children between the ages of 10 and 13, according to data reviewed by The Seoul Economic Daily.
That age group made up 19.7% of all youth gambling arrests so far this year. Children in that range cannot be held criminally liable under South Korean law.
The growth in these numbers has been fast. Police caught 15 children aged 10 to 13 for gambling offenses in 2023, 72 in 2024, and 79 in 2025.
Smartphones and messaging apps have made gambling sites easier for children to find. Many young users get referral codes through apps like Telegram, which let them sign up for betting sites with little friction.
One platform known as H Game kept offering sports betting, casino games and slot-style gambling even after changing its name. Its use of messaging apps to recruit users shows how quickly a child can go from a chat message to a gambling account.
A Treatment System Built for a Different Problem
The Korea Center on Gambling Problems runs 15 regional centers across the country. Only six of them have services designed specifically for young people, leaving children in other regions to share programs meant for adults.
A survey from the center last year estimated that 157,703 young people in South Korea had gambled at least once. Between 2020 and 2025, only 497 people completed training to become youth gambling counselors.
Funding for that training is thin. The center’s total 2026 budget is 22.496 billion won, or about $16.3 million, but only 121 million won went toward training specialists in prevention and treatment.
A self-reporting program for online gambling launched this year is set to end in August. The program depends on young people coming forward on their own before they receive help.
That setup has a weakness built in. Children who are already deeply involved in gambling may be the least likely to report themselves.
The Missing Link Is Early Detection
Researchers and police are calling for a system that connects schools, police and treatment centers on an ongoing basis, rather than relying on occasional crackdowns.
Gambling losses can create fast financial pressure on children. Specialists say some young people respond by stealing money or pressuring classmates for cash to keep gambling.
Lee Woong-hyuk, a police science professor at Konkuk University, has warned that a child’s first gambling win can be mistaken for personal skill. That belief can lead to repeated gambling that becomes harder to stop.
Kim Sang-gyun, a police science professor at Baekseok University, has called for stronger action against gambling site operators along with more cyber monitoring and youth education programs.
Rep. Ahn Sang-hoon, who obtained the police data, is asking for prevention efforts to get the same attention as punishment. His proposal includes a permanent government body to coordinate schools, police and treatment providers.
The figures from the first seven months of 2026 show that gambling arrests are no longer limited to teenagers. Elementary school-aged children are now part of the statistics, and the current support system is still built mainly to respond after a problem is already visible.
