South Korean Court Finds Golf Betting is Illegal Gambling
Betting on golf has been found by the South Korean Supreme Court to constitute illegal gambling. A case was brought against four men who wagered on stroke play, and an appellate court found them guilty of gambling after a lower court acquitted them.
A fifty-five-year-old man faces eight months in prison, while a second man received a two-year suspended sentence. The other two were each given a year's suspended sentence.
Even though each was betting on his own ability to play the game, the court found that, because players could not forecast exactly match results, or control the game to a precise, predictable result, golf included luck and randomness. This makes betting on golf gambling.
By this finding, all games are games of luck. If games could be predicted with absolute accuracy, then no one would play.
The players were betting a little over $300 per stroke on the front nine, and doubling that on the back nine.
The lower court had found that such an interpretation of the law would make professional golfers gamblers. But the Supreme Court did not see it that way, stating, "There is no reason to treat golf betting differently from other gambling."
Such twisted reasoning usually lands a judge a job in Kentucky.
