Recently, adolescent gambling using illegal internet sites have been increasing. Using mobile devices, teenagers enjoy real-time games, such as Sports Toto, Ladder, and Social Graphs rather than off-line gambling. Since the real-time games enjoyed by teenagers take place every 40 seconds to one minute, the amount of money spent on cyber gambling is much higher than those of off-line gambling. The problem of adolescent gambling addiction is serious as gambling on smart-phones is free from time and location, such as during school hours and time with friends.
Despite the seriousness of adolescent cyber gambling, few efforts to crackdown on cyber gambling against teenagers have been made. The crackdown on cyber gambling has to conduct cooperative investigations with the law enforcement authorities overseas for a long time, because illegal gambling sites targeting adol escents have many overseas operations and run by opening other illegal sites while the investigations are proceeding. Although adolescents know that cyber gambling is illegal, because of the difficulties in crackdown they have the irrational beliefs that they will never be caught and the actions they take to payback gambling debts are illegal. To raise gambling funds, adolescents are engaged in illegal loans with high interest rate, and commit theft and second-hand fraud to settle gambling debts. Further, some teenagers who fail to pay back large amounts of gambling debts work for illegal sites as operators or participate in prostitution.

Currently, there are only active discussions on adult cyber gambling or off-line gambling in South Korea, while there is no awareness of the seriousness of adolescent cyber gambling. To understand the reality of adolescent cyber gambling, which might not be reflected in survey, this study conducted in-depth interviews with adolescents who have long been addicted to or suspended cyber gambling. This study also conducted interviews with experts to explore how the results of the study could improve the current countermeasures on adolescent cyber gambling. In addition, this study aimed to suggest practical countermeasures against adolescent cyber gambling by reviewing the cases of cyber gambling in the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, and Germany, which are the largest gambling markets in the world.

According to the Korea Center on Gambling Problems' Youth Gambling Survey in 2018, the rate of risk group among adolescents in schools was 6.4%, but the results of in-depth interviews with adolescents who have gambling experiences revealed that the actual magnitude of this problem is more serious. The majority of adolescents gambled only on mobile devices. Their cyber gambling activities began with watching their friends do it or at the suggestion of their friends. Most information about cyber gambling was al so heard from their friends. Although there were many responses that adolescents gambled at home, many respondents also said that they gambled during class hours or break time at school. Even if those students engaged in gambling activities at school were seen by teachers, teachers considered those students playing games, so teachers did not restrain them. Regarding adolescent cyber gambling, Sports Toto, which needs to know the outcome of a game was played in general, and adolescents preferred to play real-time games that take place every 40 seconds. Many respondents said that they borrowed gambling funds from their friends or settled it with pocket money, while some responded that they settled gambling funds by participating in crimes, such as theft, fraud, and school violence. Adolescents participated in cyber gambling for an average of two hours per day, whereas they lost an average of 780,000 won, and earned an average of 1.3 million won per day. The total amount they lost from gambling averaged 16.74 million won and earned was 18.44 million won on average. Some respondents said they owe gambling debts of up to 130 million won. The seriousness of the problem was revealed by the responses that adolescents get 30,000 won a week in pocket money, while they lost or earned a l ot more money than their own money, and most of the money for gambling was settled by borrowing from others or engaging in crimes. Of the 49 respondents, 24 adolescents said they stopped cyber gambling when they realized the gambling structure, that they never earn money from cyber gambling and found it hard to afford a huge amount of gambling debts. The respondents said that preventive policies, crackdown performances, and adult intervention had little effect on quitting gambling. Adolescents continuing to gamble were found to be unable to stop gambling because of their continued desire to earn money, and the significant influence of their friends. The respondents said that the police enforcement was not helpful in preventing and eliminating gambling because it is currently insignificant. Also, adolescents responded that preventive education at school did not help stop gambling because it was superficial . The respondents also said that to eliminate adolescent cyber gambling, enforcement on gambling should be strengthened, and penalties for gambling site operators and developers must be strengthened.

Although experts acknowledged the seriousness of the adolescent cyber gambling problem, they believed that the boundaries between legal and illegal areas are ambiguous, considering that adolescent cyber gambling is currently being played in a simil ar form to general games, and that games are al so operated similarly to gambling through probabilistic items or cash transactions of items. Inconsistent with the adolescents' reponses, many experts believed that cyber gambling prevention education for adolescents was helpful. The discrepancy between experts' responses and adolescents' responses can be explained because most of the expert groups who directly participated in or involved in prevention education value the effectiveness of prevention education higher than those of adolescent respondents. Regarding the strengthening of punishment for adolescent cyber gambling, there were many negative opinions because adolescents participating in cyber gambling should be subject to treatment and protection. Although experts recognized that the penalties for illegal gambling sites operators and developers should be strengthened, some experts questioned whether it would actually be executed. In addition, other opinions on strengthening adult verification systems, restricting gambling advertisements, and strengthening treatment and education for adolescents participating in cyber gambling were raised.

In foreign countries, blocking access to internet gambling sites is considered as the most definite gambling prevention policy, and it basically restricts cyber gambling activities for adolescents under 18 years. In addition, gambling site operators must run an age verification system in advance for operating their businesses. In the United Kingdom, gambling site operators are required to have gambling prevention programs, such as a time-out and self-exclusion through player records. Restrictions on cyber gambling advertisements are being tightened. In the United Kingdom, a gambling advertisements ethics program called 'voluntary code' of the media is being operated under the proposal of 'the Responsible Gambling Strategy Board.' Regulations are also tightened in Japan and the United Kingdom on game items, which corresponds to probabilistic items in South Korea. Additionally, the United Kingdom has been providing cyber gambling addiction treatment services through the cyber gambling therapy program called 'GambleAware' since 2017. In Germany, various services are provided in terms of regional units.

Adolescent cyber gambling has similar aspects to adolescent prostitution, such as although adolescents acknowledge cyber gambling is illegal, they participate in gambling activities, they are strongly confident that they will never get caught by the law enforcement, they are perpetrators, but also victims, and cyber gambling activities are not exposed. For those adolescents participating in cyber gambling, protective and treatment approaches are needed rather than creating a social stigma through punishments. To address the adolescent cyber gambling problem, the government needs to come up with a comprehensive government-wide countermeasure against adolescent cyber gambling, it is urgent to develop a specialized preventive education program that makes adolescents realize the gambling structure that they never earn money from gambling. To prevent adolescents from participating in cyber gambling in early stages, it is necessary to mandate parental notification services when opening accounts for adolescents, expand the limit of purchases of game items to all game items by using the Information and Communication Network, and strengthen regulations on probabilistic game items. A crackdown on illegal site operators must be strengthened, and restriction systems, such as the retri of illegal profits and verification procedures should be strengthened. Finally, to protect adolescents who engaged in cyber gambling, it is necessary to activate the conditional indictment suspension system, develop effective re-offending prevention programs, and establish a community-wide linkage system for continuous treatment.