Rep. Jin Seon-mi urges disclosure of management standards for high-value and repeat buyers due to rapid increase in Sports Toto online sales

Jin Seon-mi: “Management standards for high-value and repeat buyers must be disclosed”

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Jeong-jin = It was pointed out that the relaxation of regulations related to Sports Toto, which increased real-name purchases in response to illegal sports gambling, had the side effect of increasing online sales.

According to data submitted by the office of Jin Seon-mi of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the National Assembly Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee, from the Korea Sports Promotion Foundation on the 27th, Sports Toto online sales increased by 42.2% from KRW 860.5 billion in 2024 to KRW 1.2239 trillion in 2025.

This is a steep rise considering that total online and offline sales increased only by 1.2% during the same period.

The online share of total sales also increased from 14.3% to 20.1%.

The rapid increase in online sales is believed to be due to the deregulation measures implemented by the government and corporation early last year.

In February of last year, the sports Toto purchase time was extended by one hour from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m., and in March of the same year, the online purchase limit was increased from 50,000 won to 100,000 won per session.

The intention was to absorb offline 'anonymous buyers' online by increasing convenience by taking advantage of the fact that real-name authentication is required for online purchases, unlike offline purchases.

However, the number of users purchasing real names, which was the key justification for deregulation, actually decreased.

The number of online sports Toto buyers decreased by 5.5% from 691,859 in 2024 to 653,722 last year.

In the end, Representative Jin pointed out that while the number of users decreased, the amount of purchases per person increased rapidly, making it difficult to avoid criticism that deregulation only encouraged existing users to overuse Sports Toto.

Rep. Jin said, "We need to examine whether the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Corporation have reviewed and evaluated in advance whether deregulation is leading to the risk of high-value or repeat purchases or over-indulgence," and added, "We must transparently disclose whether the user protection device has actually worked and by what standards we are managing high-value and repeat buyers."