The Korean Ministry of Information snd Communication has announced that it will toughen its monitoring measures for online gambling including poker. According to the National Police Agency, 291 online gambling sites have been requested to be blocked.

The Ministry said that it would be working with related Government agencies including the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the National Police Agency and the Information and Communication Ethics Committee in a crackdown on online gambling, which is illegal in Korea.

The Ministry of Information said that the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, which recently revised the Game Industry Promotion Act to ban currency-trading websites, would be strengthening the Game Rating Board’s screening process when approving a game site.

The National Police Agency reported recently that the number of online gambling sites it requested be blocked by the Ethics Committee grew to 291 from 76 last year.

„Illegal online gambling sites sign up members through a secret IP address at a specific time. And such sites are hard to find because they are increasingly good at evading IP tracking,“ said Lee Tai-hee, Director of the Information Safety Team at the Ministry Of Ministry.

The Ethics Committee, which has the authority to ask local network providers to block illegal websites, said that it will request that police investigate three local online gambling sites and block 21 currency-trading game sites that were uncovered recently.