5 Koreans arrested for online betting

CEBU, Philippines - Police arrested five Koreans allegedly in the act of betting online and maintaining online gambling paraphernalia in Barangay Subabasbas, Lapu-Lapu City Thursday night.

Operatives of the Regional Special Operation Group (RSOG) of the Police Regional Office 7 were armed with a search warrant issued by Judge Meinrado Paredes of the Regional Trial Court Branch 13.

The search warrant was issued against Park Sang Min alias Steve Lee, 32, a resident of Banyat St., Pacific Grand Villas, Barangay Subabasbas. The operation was led by Inspectors Ruel Burlat and Romeo Sentinta, Jr. of RSOG, in coordination with the Regional Intelligence Division and the Lapu-Lapu City Police Office.

The team arrived at Lee’s residence at 7 p.m. Barangay tanod Ernesto Mondoñedo, Jr. witnessed the operation which resulted in Lee’s arrest.

Also arrested were Jeong Jong Ho alias Eric, 42; Park In Gyu, 30; An Ji Hwan, 32; and Kang Jae Wook, 39, who were apparently living with Lee.

Chief Insp. George Ylanan, head of RSOG, said the suspects came to the Philippines early this year as tourists.

Police confiscated several gambling paraphernalia which were also subject of the search warrant. These include seven LCD monitors, a laptop, three Central Processing Units, three keyboards, 12 cellular phones, Galaxy tab, iPhone4, iPad, MP3 players, and hard disk drive, among others.

They also recovered notebooks with several bank accounts written, apparently the bank accounts of the bettors.

Ylanan said the Koreans violated Republic Act 9287 which is “An Act Increasing the Penalties for Illegal Numbers Games, amending certain provision of Presidential Decree 1602.”

“While ongoing ang salida or ang game, sige sad ang betting,” Ylanan explained, adding that this is the first time that they encountered such violation involving online gambling.

He said the suspects contact their bettors abroad.

About three months ago, Ylanan said someone tipped them that a group of Koreans are staying in a house and were not seen going outside.

Acting on the report, Ylanan said they conducted an intense surveillance on the place and found out that the Koreans were engaged in online betting.

“Karon, naproblema mi asa na violation sila mu-fall, so we consulted with Judge Paredes,” Ylanan said. (We did not know which law they were violating.)

Ylanan said Paredes cited that the suspects violated RA 9287, and thus issued the search warrant. Ylanan said the suspects mostly bet on the football sports, a favorite sports in South Korea.

“But nasunog na man sila didto sa South Korea kay dali ra man sila ma-trace considering their technology, so namalhin sila diri. Maybe they were thinking na di sad sila ma-monitor diri, so mibalhin sila,” Ylanan said. (They were easily monitored in Korea that is why they transferred here.)

With this, the RSOG chief warned the foreigners that they are also being monitored here.

Right now, there are at most four more areas in Cebu being monitored for illegal online gambling.

The suspects are now detained at the Lapu-Lapu City Police Office and will face charges next week. The case is bailable.     - THE FREEMAN