“People who have fallen into a sense of helplessness called corona blue become immersed in alcohol or gambling, and the second circle of helplessness is felt by addiction, creating a vicious circle.”
It turns out that Corona19, which changed the daily life of Korean society, intensified the problem of gambling. The number of gambling counseling, including illegal sports betting, stock addiction, and private FX margin trading, increased compared to the previous year. This is even more remarkable considering that the sports market around the world has stopped with Corona 19, making it difficult to wager illegal sports.
According to the Korea Gambling Problem Management Center on the 25th, there were 2,508 people receiving gambling counseling from the center’s counseling program, ‘Helpline’, from March to May this year. This is an increase of 16% compared to 2,162 people in the same period last year.
Director Lee Hong-sik said, “Social distance has reduced the way to relieve stress while exercising or face-to-face activities.” It had also been thought that gambling would be reduced, but rather targeted isolated people in the house through online gambling (judi online) which most of the time is illegal and prohibited by law.” By age group, the increase was at least 12.5%, excluding teenagers and older people in their 60s and 70s. In particular, the number of patients receiving counseling is in their 40s, increased by 39.2% from 273 in March to May last year to 380 in the same period this year.
“As Corona 19 has increased the time spent at home and the frequency of smartphone use has increased, an environment prone to exposure to gambling advertisements has been created,” said Seoul Information Center Director Seoul Information Center. “This change also helped to deepen the gambling problem.”
One of the peculiarities is the increase in counseling related to finance such as stock addiction and private FX margin trading during the Corona period. In particular, after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a pandemic (a pandemic) in March, the number of stock addiction counseling surged.
According to data from the Gambling Problem Management Center, about 214 people filed with the center for counseling regarding stock-related problems this March-May. It was close to three times the same period last year.
Investing In Legal And Proven FX Margin Trading
Many people have lost money through a private FX margin transaction that is sometimes fraudulent.
According to the Financial Supervisory Service, a total of 158 cases of private FX margin transaction damage counseling were received from January to May this year.
“If game-type gambling was popular in the past, gambling that gives immediate rewards in a simple way like sipping is popular recently,” said Lee. “The recent problem of FX margin trading is a kind of sibling sipping so that young people can easily fall into it. I’m promoting it through SNS.”
FX margin trading conducted by private companies is different from normal FX margin trading, a high-risk, high-yield financial investment product aimed at foreign exchange gains. If an investor bets on whether the exchange rate of a specific currency will go up or down, it gives a big profit, and if it is wrong, it loses the investment. Private FX margin trading companies continue to operate illegally. In order to conduct normal FX margin trading, you must obtain a financial investment business license from the Financial Services Commission, but private companies operate without permission.
On the other hand, while gambling is illegal in Korea and other parts of the world because of the risks of loses and addiction, there is no doubt that gambling is still one of the biggest industries that contribute significantly to our economy.