Inside this arcade, with its dim lights and cigarette smoke, 70 game
machines are running non-stop with their brilliant screens and electronic
sounds. There are 15 customers in the arcade. However, each customer is
using four, five machines at a time, so none of the machines are idle.
Across a two-lane road, not even 20 meters away, is a police box that
belongs to the public safety division of a police station nearby in charge
of gambling arcade regulation duties. After the “Sea Story” sensation this
June, gambling arcades disappeared following the nationwide extensive
crackdown drive by the prosecution and the police. However, they are back
now, and they are thriving. As gambling arcades begin to make their
comeback, people who had lost large sums of money on games such as Sea Story
are again gathering at the arcades, hoping to win back what they lost.
Consequently, the arcade owners are doing extremely well to the point that
there aren’t enough machines to go around. Most arcades do not have
signboards outside and have covered their windows with black vinyl so that
the inside cannot be seen. At another arcade around the same time in
Donam-dong, Seongbuk-gu, a female employee is explaining in detail to the
customers about various functions such as “foreshadowing” or “successive
hits.” “If you see a white diamond in the middle, you get the highest score,
and if the screen becomes dark with sounds like water bubbles popping, it’s
a “foreshadowing” of a big score that is soon to come. We have “successive
hits” as well. It’s really not that different from Sea Story.”
“Foreshadowing” and “successive hits” are standards for judging whether or
not the game is a gambling game, and are subject to regulation. The games
that have become widely popular after the Sea Story incident are “Diamond”
and “Iceland Adventure.” The titles and screens are slightly different but
the game process is nearly identical to Sea Story. Illegal exchanges of gift
certificates used as prizes into cash are also still going on. At an arcade
near Yeongdeungpo Station, a small change booth is located right next to the
entrance of the arcade. There, gift certificates with a face value of 5,000
won were being exchanged for 4,500 won in cash.
Most of the people who frequent these arcades are small business owners in
their 30s to 50s, and people who do manual labor. A few matrons in their 40s
or 50s could also be seen. Most of them said, “I’ve come to win back the
money I lost playing Sea Story.”
A man we met in an arcade in Bongcheon-dong, Gwanak-gu, who said he was in
his 40s and did manual labor, said, “I lost 10 million won playing Sea
Story. I’ve come back in hopes of winning back my capital.”
Following the recent reopening of such gambling arcades, the prosecution and
police have decided to extend the crackdown period, which had been scheduled
to end by December 31, until April 28, 2007, when the gift certificate
system will be abolished.
