South Korean Starlet’s Mom Charged with Running Illegal Gambling Empire

Posted on: September 3, 2024, 04:03h. 

Last updated on: September 3, 2024, 04:04h.

The mother of South Korean actress Han So-hee has been arrested for allegedly running a network of illegal gambling dens that spanned several cities in the East Asian nation, police said Tuesday.

Han’s mother, identified by authorities only as a woman in her 50s with the family name Shin, has been charged with operating illegal gambling houses at 12 separate locations from 2021 to late last month.

Shin employed operators who acted as proxies, according to prosecutors. Gamblers who visited the venues were given access to a website controlled by Shin where they could purchase credits to participate in games like baccarat, prosecutors said.

Han Statement

Han released a statement via her agent, 9ato Entertainment, emphasizing that she was estranged from her mother and had no connection to her illegal gambling empire.

“The report from yesterday (September 2) concerns Han So Hee’s mother’s personal and independent actions,” read the statement. “Han So Hee was devastated upon learning about it through the news.

We want to reiterate that this incident relates entirely to her mother’s independent actions and has nothing to do with the actress,” Han’s agency added.

Han moved out of her family home to live with her grandmother in Seoul after her parents’ divorce when she was five years old. She later supported herself through college by modelling and then acting.

She became an A-list celebrity in South Korea after starring in ‘The World of the Married,’ the highest-rated television series in Korean cable TV history.

Currently, Han plays the female lead in ‘Gyeongseong Creature,’ a widely popular historical television epic with added horror elements depicting events surrounding the Japanese occupation of Seoul in 1945.

Multiple Frauds

It’s not the first time Han has had problems with her estranged mother. In 2020, she wrote on her blog that she had recently paid Shin’s debts out of a sense of filial duty.

She did so again two years later, when her mother was involved in multiple fraud cases. These included Shin opening a bank account in Han’s name to borrow money.

I feel nothing but remorse, as my mistaken belief that repaying the debts would solve everything only led to more victims,” Han wrote at the time.

While South Korea has many foreigner-only casinos, gambling is illegal for its citizens with one exception – at the state-owned Kangwon Land Casino. In fact, Kangwon Land is the only place in the world where South Koreans can gamble, because they can theoretically be prosecuted at home for gambling abroad.