Video Gambling Taskforce Established

There are suspicions of lobbying involving politicians and public servants, as well as intervention from the political sector with regards to authorizing “Sea Story,” an arcade with speculative games, and selecting the arcade’s gift certificate issuer. The Prosecutors Office (PO) set up a special taskforce on Monday for the investigation.

The PO initially said, “Rumors making rounds among politicians are not subject to investigation.” However, as President Roh Moo-hyun demanded a “thorough investigation that leaves no speck of suspicion,” the PO decided to investigate.

The Seoul PO assigned four prosecutors from the Drugs and Organized Crime Investigations Department (headed by Chung Yoon-ki), including Mr. Chung, and four other prosecutors from the Special Investigations Department and Financial Investigations Department to a special task force, which launched the investigations.

Lee In-kyu of the Seoul PO said, “So far the investigation focused on the illegitimacy of games and the flow of money. Now it will focus on all suspicions raised by the media and the political sector.”

Lee added, “The investigation will get to the bottom of this for sure,” implying that this would be an intensive investigation.

woogija@donga.com will71@donga.com