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Bars where you can play
card games, and illegal gambling with cash in Hold'em pubs is constant.

It is said that the crackdown is not easy, but a reporter from Kwang Hyun Choi covered the scene.

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An underground hold'em pub in Gangnam,
Seoul.

More than 20 people are playing card games.

You can buy chips for up to 100 million won at a time, and I asked the staff if they could exchange the chips I won in the game for cash.

[Hold'em pub staff: Cash game That's right, personally, I'll buy it for you, so you don't have to worry. You can exchange money right away.]

Cashing chips is a gambling offense and is strictly illegal.

Another board café in Gangnam.

After pre-announcing it on your social media account, you will be told your name and you will be led to a corner room.


Enlarge the image


After buying 70,70 won worth of chips for the fee, they give away 7,5 won in cash when they finish the game and give the remaining chips.

[Hold'em pub staff: ○○ member?]

Like a casino, chips were exchanged for money, and five of the seven places the reporters found registered as regular restaurants or board game cafes and said they played illegal "cash games."

In the meantime, the number of young people who have gotten into gambling in Hold'em pubs is increasing.

[20-something single gambling group member: You just sign it as a board café, a hold'em café or something like that. I asked. Hit with cash, hit with cash. I did it right away.]

There are about 3,80 places nationwide that have been reported to be open as hold'em pubs, and when the National Assembly investigated them for the bill, it was estimated that 2% of them were operating illegally.

[Korea Hold'em Association official: There are reports that an average of 3~3 million won per table is more than that, but it cannot be said that the money goes further down.]

Despite these circumstances, it is not easy to crack down on illegal hold'em pub establishments.

This is because even if a report of gambling comes in, when the police are called, they hide the exchange scene.

In fact, police carried out a massive crackdown in Seoul during the month of March, but only one was caught.

(Video Interview: Joo Yong-jin, Video Editing: Park Jung-sam)