Korean mobile gambling booming

The Korea Sports Promotion Foundation has expressed concern at the growing numbers of local punters who are using modern technology to wager on sports.

The advent of mobile channels like smart phones and tablets has made the task of controlling or halting the spread of sports betting extremely difficult, leading to a proliferation of sports betting sites – mostly based offshore – servicing a burgeoning market.

Punters are taking full advantage of the facility to place in-play wagers on events, and the number of illegal sports betting websites has soared 25-fold in the last four years, reaching at least 23,000 in 2012, the Foundation estimates.