South Korea charges 58 people over offshore iGaming scheme posing as Kangwon Land, with payments routed through 70 bank accounts

South Korean police in North Gyeongsang Province have charged 58 people in a gambling case tied to an offshore iGaming product that posed as the official online platform of Kangwon Land. For PSPs and acquiring teams, the payment detail matters: the operation reportedly used about 70 third-party bank accounts, rotated monthly, to keep deposits and withdrawals moving.

1. The police said 58 suspects were charged, including citizens of Russia, the United States, Kazakhstan and South Korea. Five were arrested, while the rest were charged without detention.
2. According to the investigation, the offshore product presented itself as the official online platform of Kangwon Land and used the operator’s logo on social media and in advertising. Kangwon Land is the only licensed operator in South Korea whose land-based casino is open to South Korean citizens.
3. The scheme used deepfake videos featuring well-known athletes to attract traffic, and police estimated that it drew about 40,000 players in South Korea.
4. Police described the group as decentralized, with roles split across a South Korea coordinator, deposit and payout managers, and player acquisition staff. The key suspect was described as a man in his 30s holding Russian and U.S. citizenship, while most of the others were ethnic Koreans living abroad, including Kazakhstani citizens.
5. Payments were routed through about 70 third-party bank accounts, which were rotated every month. For banks and PSPs, that is the part worth circling in red: account rotation at that scale is a familiar sign of an operation trying to stay ahead of detection and account shutdowns.