About 3.5 million Koreans, 9.5 percent of the population, are reportedly categorized as potential gambling addicts. About 800,000 habitual gamblers need immediate psychiatric treatment. Korea is three to five times higher than Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom in the number of gambling addicts. Civil servants are not an exception to this gambling frenzy.
The Board of Audit and Inspection has detected 288 government employees for their habitual gambling at the casino of Gangwon Land.
The problem gamblers include an assistant minister, professors, teachers, firefighters, policemen and investigators of the prosecution.
An assistant minister-level official of the Fair Trade Commission laundered business cards to raise money for gambling. He used taxpayer money for his gambling. He even received bribes from a waste disposal company for frequenting the casino. He visited the nation’s only casino for locals 38 times.
A Busan City office-holder frequented the gambling site during a business trip. Eight professors of state-run universities were absent from work for gambling. They even asked assistants to give a lecture on their behalf so that they could gamble during office hours. Ten elementary-school teachers also went to the casino during week days. A Seoul City official returned from overseas training on the pretext of taking care of his ill father and gambled at the casino.
This is not the first time the agency has made public a list of public servants caught gambling. Lobbyists have often enticed government officials to the gambling site for bribery.
Problematic is the lax supervision of these government employees. Some government agencies have hushed up the rule-breaking practices. Their methods of sneaking into the casino were so hideous that many of them could have avoided crackdown.
Now is the time to strengthen discipline in the officialdom. Public servants gambling during working hours must quit the officialdom. The gambling fund needs to be under close monitoring for possible bribe-taking. Their gambling is not a private issue but a dereliction of duty that damages taxpayers. These gamblers have hurt the self-esteem and morale of their dutiful colleagues.
The Board of Audit and Inspection has detected 288 government employees for their habitual gambling at the casino of Gangwon Land.
The problem gamblers include an assistant minister, professors, teachers, firefighters, policemen and investigators of the prosecution.
An assistant minister-level official of the Fair Trade Commission laundered business cards to raise money for gambling. He used taxpayer money for his gambling. He even received bribes from a waste disposal company for frequenting the casino. He visited the nation’s only casino for locals 38 times.
A Busan City office-holder frequented the gambling site during a business trip. Eight professors of state-run universities were absent from work for gambling. They even asked assistants to give a lecture on their behalf so that they could gamble during office hours. Ten elementary-school teachers also went to the casino during week days. A Seoul City official returned from overseas training on the pretext of taking care of his ill father and gambled at the casino.
This is not the first time the agency has made public a list of public servants caught gambling. Lobbyists have often enticed government officials to the gambling site for bribery.
Problematic is the lax supervision of these government employees. Some government agencies have hushed up the rule-breaking practices. Their methods of sneaking into the casino were so hideous that many of them could have avoided crackdown.
Now is the time to strengthen discipline in the officialdom. Public servants gambling during working hours must quit the officialdom. The gambling fund needs to be under close monitoring for possible bribe-taking. Their gambling is not a private issue but a dereliction of duty that damages taxpayers. These gamblers have hurt the self-esteem and morale of their dutiful colleagues.
