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
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