South Korea’s celebrity sports betting scandal took an interesting turn last week as three more public figures appeared in court in a bid to explain their bad behavior. Television personalities Tak Jae-hoon and Lee Soo-geun as well as former K-pop boy band star Tony An duly hung their heads in shame at Seoul Central District Court as they admitted having engaged in illegal betting on English Premier League football matches between 2008 and 2012. The three are the whales of the celebs caught up in the scandal, having wagered significantly larger sums than those admitted by K-pop star Andy, TV host Boom and comedian Yang Sae Hyung.
While the latter three got off with fines, prosecutors are seeking a six-month jail sentence for Tak, eight months for Lee and 10 months for An. Lee’s attorney pleaded for leniency, given that his client was “painfully regretting his actions” and “didn’t think that a small bet would lead into a large crime.” Tak’s attorney threw the other two defendants under the bus, arguing that Tak should receive the lightest sentence because he’d wagered the least amount of the three. An’s attorney sought to invoke the court’s sympathy by noting that his client was experiencing a “dry period in his career” after leaving pioneering boy-band H.O.T. a decade ago, which had caused An to suffer “psychological difficulties.” All three accused will have their next court appearance on Dec. 27.
Meanwhile, an extraordinary scene – at least, to western eyes – took place on South Korean televisions as the stars of Shinhwa Broadcast publicly expressed their shame over the actions of their absent member Andy, who has withdrawn from the show since the sports betting scandal broke. The four remaining Shinhwa members bowed their heads (pictured above) and said they “deeply apologize for the previous incident regarding one of our members” while vowing to “work harder to pay you back for your support and encouragement.” Hard to imagine a National Football League game at which the entire Atlanta Falcons team hung their heads and collectively apologized for Michael Vick’s dogfighting escapades, isn’t it?
FROM STARCRAFT TO POKER STAR
Western media sources recently picked up the story that South Korea’s government is planning to lump popular eSports video games like StarCraft into the same ‘major addictive elements’ category as drugs and alcohol, despite the fact that the government declared a month ago that it had no intention of implementing the proposal. Regardless, one wonders if the hubbub had anything to do with the recent decision by legendary StarCraft player Lim Yo Hwan aka ‘BoxeR’ to shift his focus to the world of poker.
Last week, Lim appeared on a South Korean reality TV show, where he was introduced as a professional poker player rather than a two-time World Cyber Games gold medalist. Lim reportedly noted the similarities between eSports and poker, in that both activities require players to anticipate an opponent’s moves and react accordingly. Lim also stated his intention to participate in live poker at both the Asian Poker Tour and World Series of Poker, and has also signed on as pitchman for free-play social poker site FulPot Poker. The path Lim has chosen has already been taken by Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier, who made his name in the eSports world before taking to the felt (and Spanish bullfighting arenas).
