Money laundering of 28.7 billion won in investment fraud losses at casinos... 54 people arrested per day

Recruit VIPs or permanent residents to withdraw large amounts of money and exchange them for game chips to cash out

(Busan = Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Jae-hong = A group of people who laundered tens of billions of won in investment fraud at a casino was caught by the police.

The Busan Police Agency's Metropolitan Crime Investigation Unit announced on the 15th that it arrested 54 people on charges of violating the Communications Fraud Damage Refund Act, the Crime Proceeds Concealment Regulation Act, and the Electronic Financial Transaction Act, and detained and sent 14 people, including Mr. A, a man in his 50s who was in charge of money laundering, without detention, and sent the remaining 40 people without detention.

Mr. A's group is suspected of exchanging investment fraud damages of 28.7 billion won for two months from October 2025 into gaming chips at domestic casinos such as Kangwon Land and then cashing them out through baccarat games.

28.7 billion won was the money that an overseas-based investment fraud organization took from 555 victims by inducing investments with high profits as bait and manipulating them as if they had been properly invested in a false site.

Mr. A's group recruited casino VIPs and permanent residents and then carried out the crime by taking on roles such as recruitment and management, withdrawal agent, currency exchange agent, and delivery agent.

They used casinos as a means of crime, where they could withdraw large sums of money without being suspected because the source is verified when they try to withdraw a large sum of 10 million won or more from a bank.

The idea was that casino VIP customers or permanent residents could purchase game chips with checks and play games over a certain amount, then exchange the remaining chips for cash.

The withdrawers retrieved the money in their accounts and delivered it to them through checks, and VIP customers, who acted as currency exchangers, exchanged them for game chips at the casino and then cashed them out.

During the arrest, the police confiscated 111 million won in cash, mobile phones, and PCs, and received a citation for pre-indictment collection from the court for 390 million won, including real estate.

Additional investigations into overseas investment fraud organizations are also underway.

A police official said, "It is a new method of illegal money laundering using casinos," and added, "We proposed strengthening monitoring of high-value bets and cash withdrawals to domestic casino companies and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism."