No ”control tower” to deal with youth gambling...Government's establishment of department in charge is ”in name only” = South Korean report

Youth gambling has suddenly emerged as a social problem, but the Korean government has been slow to take action. Government agencies are fighting alone, but the lack of a control tower to steer the issue has made it difficult to implement effectively.
It is being pointed out that a system for managing gambling among young people should be established and that serious solutions should be sought.
The office of Democratic Party lawmaker Park Ji-won is working on the "Division to Eradicate Illegal Online Gambling by Young People" proposed by the Ministry of Justice.
According to the situation, the relevant departments have only held five meetings in the 16 months since the task force was established in November 2023. By March of the following year, it had held three meetings and six months had passed.
The task force, which had been inactive for the above period, met again twice in November of last year to discuss the details of the system. However, this was also suspended after the state of emergency was declared on December 3rd.
The task force was launched after President Yoon Seok-yeol said, "The opening of illegal gambling halls targeting young people is a heinous crime that undermines the nation's future."
The Nine Organizations that participated in the Nine-Party Coalition include the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Culture, Sports, Tourism, Health and Welfare, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, the Korea Communications Commission, the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, the National Police Agency, and the Gambling Industry Integrated Supervision Committee.
The purpose of the task force was to set priorities for creating policies to eradicate gambling among young people and to operate them organically. After the task force was launched, each organization strengthened its activities in this regard.
However, there has been no institution that can play a leading role. In fact, there are many cases where the roles of various institutions overlap, from education on preventing gambling among young people to treatment and related regulations.
Even the classification of cases is not standardized, and some say that this is causing confusion in the field.
The bill to regulate accounts and websites used for crimes against individuals remains uncontested.
As in the case of the 1990s, there are calls for a similar structure to be put in place to tackle youth gambling. In developed countries such as the UK, which are already aware of the problem, the first step is to establish a control system.
The government has also set up a gambling tower and is actively working to address the problem of gambling among young people. Experts agree.
Hong Seong-cho, a senior researcher at the Paichai University Institute of Engineering, said, "Currently, the laws and regulatory powers regarding illegal gambling are spread across many agencies.
"In order to respond smoothly, we need to establish governance that will organize such responses into a single policy consultation body," he said.
He also pointed out that "a department that can resolve the issue functionally should be selected and the government should support the enactment of related legislation."