Moving a gambling operation overseas creates distance from the police. It does not solve the problem of reaching customers.
A network recently dismantled by South Korean authorities appears to have addressed that problem through 256 seongin PC bangs (성인 PC방), or adult internet cafés, spread across the country.
According to the Jeonbuk Provincial Police Agency (전북경찰청), the organisation controlled the Korean operating rights to three gambling sites based in Phnom Penh (ភ្នំពេញ), Cambodia. Between December 2023 and April 2026, around KRW 340 billion ($245 million) was wagered through the network. Its alleged operators made approximately KRW 12.1 billion ($8.7 million).
Police arrested 18 people, including the alleged leader and the manager of the Cambodian call centre. Six were detained.
Why an online operation needed 256 shops
The websites may have been based in Cambodia, but this was not a purely digital business.
Members of the organisation approached adult PC bangs across South Korea and installed gambling software on their computers. Some locations joined as affiliated venues, while others were managed more directly by the group.
The cafés gave the Cambodian sites something that online advertising alone could not guarantee: a visible point of access inside the Korean market.
Customers could enter a familiar local venue, use the gambling platform and deal with people who understood the system. Behind them sat a larger organisation responsible for recruitment, deposits and withdrawals, account settlement, software installation and communication with the Cambodian operation.
Managers reportedly received rolling fees (롤링비), commissions calculated from the betting volume generated by each shop. Employees running the Cambodian call centre earned monthly salaries of around KRW 4 million to KRW 5 million ($2,900–$3,600), with additional bonuses based on experience.
The structure looked less like a website with a few local promoters and more like an illegal retail network.
The Cambodia-based platforms relied on Korean teams and 256 adult PC bangs for customer acquisition, payments and physical market access. Source: Jeonbuk Provincial Police Agency.
Cambodia provided distance, not invisibility
Investigators say the organisation divided its work between teams responsible for finances, settlement, shop management, recruitment and software installation.
The call centre in Phnom Penh was moved regularly. Members allegedly used daepo phones (대포폰), mobile phones registered under other identities; daepo tongjang (대포통장), borrowed or fraudulently obtained bank accounts; and aliases on Telegram.
Yet the network’s physical reach in Korea eventually exposed it.
Police opened the investigation in October 2025 after receiving information that illegal gambling software had been installed inside adult PC bangs. Bank transactions and Telegram group conversations helped investigators identify the people connecting the shops with Cambodia.
The call-centre manager was arrested after returning through Incheon International Airport (인천국제공항). Police then searched properties linked to the alleged leader and domestic managers.
The investigation is now moving beyond the core organisation. Authorities are examining participating PC-bang owners for allegedly assisting the operation and have requested administrative action against the businesses, including possible cancellation of their registrations.
Police are also seeking to preserve KRW 2.3 billion ($1.65 million) in suspected criminal proceeds before trial.
The local layer is becoming the target
The case follows a pattern recently seen in Taiwan. Rather than focusing only on websites and overseas servers, enforcement is increasingly targeting the domestic infrastructure that makes offshore gambling accessible.
Domains can be replaced. A call centre can move. Even the software can be rebuilt.
A network of local shops, bank accounts, recruiters and cash-settlement channels is harder to recreate without leaving a trail.
That is the contradiction at the centre of offshore gambling. Operators move abroad to avoid domestic enforcement, but scale still requires people and infrastructure inside the market they want to serve.
In this case, Cambodia housed the platforms. The Korean PC bangs turned them into a business.
We track how money, players and regulation move across East Asia's gaming markets — including the parts that don't show up in the official figures. If that's your world, reply. The best context usually comes from comparing notes.
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East Asia Reports
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Author — Adrià Mas Rodríguez