The Korean government plans to shut down Sea Story and other such gambling dens.
Perhaps that will prevent things like this from happening in Korea:
A couple who left their 9-month-old baby son in the stifling heat in their car while they played pachinko, causing him to die of heat exhaustion, have been reported to public prosecutors, police said….
Investigators said the couple left their 9-month-old son Seiko in their van in the parking lot of a pachinko parlor in Saku while they played pachinko for about 2 1/2 hours. When they returned to the vehicle shortly after noon, they found the infant slumped down. He died soon afterwards.
Alas, I suspect any parents that stupid will find other ways to kill their offspring.
If you are going to have legal gambling, you certainly are going to have to regulate it better than the government has handled these places.
(hat tip to Japundit)
17 Comments
Something like the pachinko story did happen in Korea with a couple playing games at a PC bang who left their kid at home–last year I think.
Is Internet gambling happening in Korea? Heard that was a big problem in Australia.
It’s not the first time I’ve heard about kids dying after being left in a car in Japan.
There’s a pachinko parlor featuring Sea Story game machines next door to my apartment. I can see the big billboard with “Marin-chan” on it every time I look out my window. As much as pachinko parlors are funneling millions of dollars to North Korea every year, I don’t see them disappearing any time soon.
I know of at least one case where a number of defendants were convicted of gambling over the Internet using an overseas site.
Good ridance. I hope the prosecutors take all 50 million of their ill-gotten gains.
Something bad happened in Japan!? Oh me, oh my, that’s simply not possible! They can do no wrong!
(end sarcastic mode)
Please now, Sewing. We both know only Asians are capable of evil…
a few years ago i heard that the government-run casino in my hometown (in canada) had hired extra staff to walk around the massive parking lot to look for dogs and/or kids left behind in cars. sure, the heat is bad in the summer, but the real killer is the -30 C weather in the winter.
i used to work, all those years ago in canada, in a sandwich shop beside a bar. the bar had VLTs (video lottery terminals), and this one nice couple would drop their kids off at the shop and head over to the bar for some quick slots. the kids, we found out ’cause we asked them, had instructions to buy and share one cookie each hour. there were two of them, ages six and eight. after about three hours each time, the parents would come back and collect the kids.
this went on for a few weeks. then a co-worker, who admitted to me that his mother used to do roughly the same thing to him, threatened to call child and family services.
after that, i imagine, the parents just left the kids in the car in the parking lot.
It’s sad in all such cases. It’s sad to hear about the Japanese case, and the Canadian case, and any other such cases that occur. It seems our provincial governments here in Canada are relying too much on gambling revenue…but that’s a whole other discussion that’s way beyond the scope of this blog.
Here in Oregon, there have been a few stories about parents leaving children (usually small babies) in the car ‘just for a few minutes’, and returning to find the car stolen. Of course, most of the cars were found pretty quickly (I guess not many car thieves want kidnapping on their resume), but it just goes to show — people who have children are often idiots who don’t deserve them. Children and small pets: If you want to see either alive again, don’t leave them unattended in a car.
Are incidents like the one in Japan occurring because minors aren’t allowed into pachinko parlours (are they)? Now, changing the law (if there is one) might just create new problems rather than merely solving the old ones….
I was told by a Taxi Driver that “I finally realized that I live in a communist state” as he witnessed one of his friend’s “바다이야기” shop being seized by prosecutors.
His friend opened a “바다이야기” in outskirt of Seoul a month ago. His friend invested so much as he believed “바다이야기” is a legal gambling without any doubt and a winning lotto ticket.
Now, his friend just want to hang himself after his store being wipe out by law enforcement. Taxi driver also said “Where on earth can practice law in such an ignorant way? It could only happen in this country” He said the Law is just “코에 걸면 코걸이 귀에 걸면 귀걸이인 같은 법” while I paying 9,600 won fair.
JiMong,
This is why you need consistant enforcement of laws rather than these periodic crackdowns we have.
Either gambling is legal everywhere or it is not. If so, then these places need better regulating. If not, then these places should never have been allowed to open in the first place.
Here is the biggest story there is in Korea at the moment, and it gets 14 comments including this one. While you have couple of threads about english gate and they get over 100 comments in matter of hours.
Huh? Didn’t this story happen in Japan?
It seems to be the Flying Yangban’s (Andy’s) poor luck. His last comment on a by-election only got three comments, one of which was from him. Help the poor guy out!
Sorry, his last post, not his last comment…on a by-election in South Jeolla for a seat formerly held by the Democratic Party.