{"id":777033999,"date":"2025-10-31T10:55:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T13:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777033999"},"modified":"2026-04-21T17:34:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T20:34:55","slug":"korean-court-sentences-fake-lottery-website-kingpin-to-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/korean-court-sentences-fake-lottery-website-kingpin-to-prison","title":{"rendered":"South Korean court sentences 52 over fake lottery prediction website"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The illegal operation scammed victims out of more than 40bn<\/strong> won<\/strong> (US$28m).<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

South Korea.- The Incheon District Court<\/strong> has sentenced the leader of a fake lottery prediction website to 12 years<\/strong> in prison. The illegal operation, active from January<\/strong> 2021 to April 2023<\/strong>, scammed victims out of more than 40bn<\/strong> won<\/strong> (US$28m), according to the court\u2019s ruling on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some 52 people were involved in running a website that claimed to use a “lottery number prediction engine” that supposedly used advanced maths to forecast winning numbers, but numbers were randomly generated. The criminal organisation had a headquarters and nine branch offices, from which members coordinated efforts to scam victims.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to prosecutors, every Saturday, the website would post the numbers it claimed its engine had predicted, and then alter them after the draw to mirror the actual results. The group claimed to offer full refunds if customers didn\u2019t win. Describing their actions as highly malicious, the court noted that the group preyed on the hopes of those in financial hardship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the prison sentence, the leader was ordered to forfeit 10.5bn won<\/strong> (US$7.3bn). The court also handed suspended prison sentences of one to two and a half years<\/strong> to 52 members<\/strong> of the group, including a team supervisor in his 30s. Some received fines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The court ruled: \u201cIf the court fails to impose appropriate punishment, similar copycat crimes are likely to follow. The leader had prior convictions for fraud and drunk driving and carried out the operation while already being a repeat offender.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\t\t\tSee also:<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tSee also:<\/span> Jeju police make 21 arrests in operation against illegal gambling network<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The illegal operation scammed victims out of more than 40bn won (US$28m).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2395,"featured_media":777034001,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"The Incheon District Court has sentenced the leader of an illegal lottery prediction website in South Korea to 12 years in prison for scamming victims out of over 40bn won (US$28m). The operation, active from 2021 to 2023, falsely claimed to use an \"advanced maths\" engine to forecast winning numbers, altering results post-draw to deceive customers. This ruling underscores regulatory commitment to combating illicit gambling operations and protecting consumers.","focusai_entities":"Incheon District Court, prosecutors","focusai_location":"South Korea, Incheon","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.8), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.7), payments_fraud_aml (0.9), investor_analyst (0.8), gambler_consumer (0.9), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Regulatory Gaps Exposed?","query":"What specific regulatory and enforcement gaps allowed this illicit lottery prediction operation to persist for over two years, defrauding victims of 40bn won?"},{"label":"Future Enforcement Strategy?","query":"How will this significant judicial ruling influence future regulatory enforcement strategies and inter-agency cooperation against similar online gambling fraud schemes in South Korea?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[16338],"tags":[29,23911,152],"class_list":["post-777033999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-east-asia-news","tag-casino","tag-gambling-regulation","tag-south-korea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777033999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2395"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777033999"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777033999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777034015,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777033999\/revisions\/777034015"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777034001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777033999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777033999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777033999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}